Learning to Live on the Outside - ACTIVE VERSION
by CrazyCatLady2.0
Summary: After six and half years in prison, Allison's life sentence is thrown away and she is released back into society. She vows to never again let a man wearing a Sons of Anarchy patch decide her fate. Despite her feelings, she decides to try living in Charming when she lands a job at St. Thomas. Past mistakes and old lovers make it hard for her to carve out a new life on the outside.
1. Chapter 1

"Best of luck in your future Ms. Lowrance," a tall, female guard, said to Allison as she buzzed her through the steel door.

"Fuck you, and fuck this place. I hope you all rot in hell," Allison snapped as she walked briskly past the guard and exited out to her freedom through the steel doorway.

Allison treaded down a narrow concrete path for a few feet, before she passed through the final gate, in the outermost wire fence. Once on the other side of the fence, Allison stood still for a second and gazed upwards at the institution that had ruled for life for the past, six and a half years.

The second she entered Chowchilla State Penitentiary, she dreamed of this day. She vowed that she was never going to give up on fighting for her innocence – and she didn't. Sure there were bumps in the road, but that was to be expected. When Rachel visited her at the beginning of the week, and told her that she won the appeal; Allison felt like she was floating on cloud nine.

A couple loud honks from a car behind her, managed to startle Allison out of her trance. She quickly spun around, ready to lip off the moron in the black Mercedes who scared her, but she stopped when the driver got out of the car.

Allison's unimpressed expression shattered into a huge grin, "Rachel," Allison chimed as Rachel walked towards her and pulled her into a tight hug, "this is really happening isn't it?"

Rachel Braun let go of her client and smiled, "It really is. It took us a long time, but we did it. You are now a free woman Allison."

"I can't thank you enough Rachel," Allison replied. She felt as if every nerve in her body was vibrating with excitement.

"Come on," Rachel said as she grabbed the plastic bag that contained the few personal belongings Allison owned from her hand, "let's get out of here."

Allison nodded her head, and then climbed into the passenger seat. The odour of fresh leather and new car smell overwhelmed her nose. She remembered that Rachel had told her, she had bought the car only a few days ago.

After Rachel put the bag in her trunk and shut it, her cell phone rang. She walked up to Allison's side of the window and tapped on the glass. As Allison rolled down the window, Rachel said, "I have to take this. It'll just be a second."

Allison nodded and as Rachel took the call, Allison looked around the vehicle. There were so many high tech buttons and gadgets on the dashboard. She couldn't help but to wonder why you would need so many devices in a car?

"Sorry about. I told my office that I was taking the day off, but they just don't listen," Rachel apologized as she settled down into the driver's seat.

"No worries. You are a very busy woman," Allison replied with a small smile.

"So are you ready to go, or do you need a while longer?" Rachel asked seriously. She realized that this was a huge step for Allison.

Allison raised her eyebrows and responded with a sly grin, "I have spent the last six years, seven months and eighteen days here – let's get the hell out of here!"

Rachel chuckled and shifted the car into drive, "Yes Mam."

Once they had navigated their way out of the parking lot, and past the outer watchtowers in the yard, Allison let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding in. When they merged onto the highway, Allison spoke up, "So, how long of a drive is it to Charming?"

"Normally it is an hour and half. They have been doing some roadside construction lately, so we are looking at more like two hours." Rachel answered.

"You know you really didn't have to help me out like this," Allison blurted out, unable to hide her embarrassment. She was almost certain that Rachel did not help out her other clients like this.

"Nonsense Allison, you are not just a client –"

"Past client," Allison happily corrected her.

Rachel laughed, "_Past client_ \- I consider you my friend Allison. If what happened to you, happened to me – I don't think I would have made it. You are an inspiration, and I am more than happy to help you out anyways I can."

"That uh," Allison's breath hitched for a moment. The sincerity in Rachel's tone astonished her, "very sweet of you. Thank you. This never could have happened without your legal skills."

Rachel's pride swelled slightly at her comment, "your welcome." Rachel then decided to get down to business, "Now, even though the D.A. hasn't gotten around to cleaning up your record yet, Margaret Murphy – an administrator at St. Thomas Hospital – has agreed to grant you an interview for an R.N. opening they have in their pediatric department, at 11am."

Allison's eyes widened in astonishment, "Really? Like you mean today? I thought that interview wasn't until tomorrow!"

The last thing she had expected was to ever work in health care again. Moreover, she never expected to have a job interview right after she had just been released from prison!

"Yup," Rachel nodded. She was happy that Allison reacted to her surprise the way she expected her to.

"Wow that's surprising. Does she know that I'll still have a count of imperfect self defense voluntary manslaughter, on my record?" Allison asked tentatively.

"Yes she does. I did however explain that due to the fact, that the court couldn't physically prove that Paul was intoxicated at the time of the attack, the judge couldn't diminish the charge to voluntary manslaughter," Rachel replied before she took a sip of her Starbucks.

"How much did you tell her about the attack?" Allison blurted out. The last thing she wanted was for her potential boss to label her as a vicious ex-con right off of the bat.

"Barely anything – all I said was that it was an ongoing domestic situation which came to a boiling point," Rachel tried to reassure Allison.

Allison felt her heart beat slow down immediately, after hearing Rachel's reply. She let out a relieved huff of air and said, "Thanks. I am sorry if I was brash. I guess I am just really anxious."

"No need to apologize, it's perfectly understandable," Rachel asserted. "Now after your interview, we are going to go get you your driver's license, then go buy you a car. After that, I'll drop you off at the motel I booked for you until you find yourself a place. Sound good to you?"

"Yeah, uh, that sounds good to me," Allison found herself a bit tongue tied. She had no idea Rachel had to put so much thought into helping her re-integrate into the real world.

"Good," Rachel hesitated for a moment before she continued, "I just have to ask – if you get this job in Charming, are you okay knowing that there is a Sons of Anarchy charter in town? Given everything that happened in Tacoma, I expect you must be a bit leery of the idea."

Allison sighed to herself. She knew that the topic was going to be brought sooner or later. Thankfully, she had already worked out a spiel on the subject days before, "Yes I am. It happened almost seven years ago; I highly doubt any of the older members of SAMCRO, would even recognize me as Paul Magagnoli's, old lady. Furthermore, nobody has heard from, or seen, Victor or Charlie since they were ex-communicated after shit went down. I am not sacred of SAMCRO, they can't do anything to me."

Rachel slowly nodded - it was a logical, well thought through answer. "You are exactly right."

xxx

Allison stood in front of the body length mirror, in the bathrooms by the main entrance of St. Thomas Hospital.

She was very thankful that Rachel suggested they stop off at a drug store in Lodi, and pick up some makeup for her. The makeup brightened up her ghostly complexion, but didn't do much to hide the tiny wrinkles forming by the corners of her hazel eyes.

"Fuck you aging," Allison mumbled to herself as she contorted her body so she could view her backside.

Allison was only thirty-six years old, but she felt more like seventy years old. Prison hadn't been kind to her face, or mind.

The only real benefit of being in prison was that she became ripped. There wasn't much else to do when you are stuck inside of a cell for sixteen hours a day except work out. Besides, the more physically strong you appear the less likely one of the psychopath dikes, will try and corner you during showers.

Allison's dark wash jean, and button down, purple silk blouse, wasn't the most formal attire for a job interview, but it worked. She quickly twisted her straight, reddish brown hair into bun, and then exited the bathroom.

Rachel was sitting on a bench, checking her emails on her iPhone when Allison emerged. When she heard Allison approach, she looked up and was surprised at Allison's transformation. It was so odd seeing her in civilian clothes, and not in a bright orange jumpsuit that was three sizes too big.

"Well, how do I look?" Allison exclaimed while opening her arms outward for inspection. She knew that her outfit wasn't even close to Rachel's Valentino, black floral print, long sleeved mini dress and black Louboutin heels.

"Very nice! Now let's find this lady's office. We don't want to be late," Rachel said.

After about five minutes of following an endless queue of directional signs, they finally found the door that had, _Margaret Murphy, Hospital Administer and General Supervisor,_ written in large black type.

A short, red headed woman, in a grey pants suit was conversing with a man that appeared to be a doctor. When she saw Allison and Rachel, she excused herself and walked up to the pair.

"You must be Allison," the short, red head addressed Allison as she held out her for a shake.

"Yes I am," Allison replied as she accepted the woman's hand shake.

"Margaret Murphy," Margaret formally introduced herself. She then turned to Rachel, "Mrs. Braun, it's a pleasure to see you again."

"Likewise," Rachel smiled. "Well I will leave you two to it. I'll be waiting around the corner in the cafeteria for you. Good luck Allison."

"Thanks," Allison replied.

As Allison, watched Rachel turn around and leave, her nerves suddenly kicked in. How much would this lady ask about her record? Can a hospital really let an ex-con work as an R.N., or was this lady just humoring Rachel and her? Does she know about her history with SAMTAC – and if so, would she bring up the fact that SAMCRO is based in Charming?

"Well, should we get started Ms. Lowrance?" Margaret questioned in an analytical tone.

Allison was so deep in thought, it didn't even register to her that it was the second time Margaret had tried to get her attention. "Uh, yes of course," Allison's voice wavered, as her cheeks grew red.

Margaret fished out her keys from her pants pocket, and opened up her door. When Allison followed her inside, she was very impressed by what she saw.

In her past experience, administrator's offices usually looked like a paper tornado had swooped through. However, Margaret's office was the exact opposite. It seemed like every object and file folder had its own distinct spot. To top it all off, there was even the scent of a fresh linen air freshener wafting through the room.

This lady meant business.

"Please have a seat," Margaret gestured with her hand to a chair, on the opposite side of her desk.

Allison realized how much of an idiot she must have seemed by standing in the doorway, looking like a deer in headlights.

When Allison sat down, Margaret pulled a file out of her top desk drawer and opened it. She took a second to re-familiarize herself with the papers before she spoke, "Now I called up Tacoma General Hospital, and had them send over your file from your previous employment. Your old supervisors had nothing but praise when I inquired about you. The head nurse in pediatrics department, Jessica Smithson, said you were one of the most competent and dedicated R.N's she ever had working under her. You are more than qualified for the position Ms. Lowrance, the only issue is -"

"My criminal record," Allison cut her off.

"Yes," Margaret sighed. She readjusted her glasses before she continued on, "When your lawyer contacted me about granting you this interview, I had to run a criminal record check – its standard procedure. Mrs. Braun assured me that all of your charges will be wiped from your record, except the imperfect self-defence charge. Normally, this would automatically mean that the hospital would have to turn down your application. However, the board and I combed through your employment and incarceration records meticulously – despite the charge, we have found no evidence that you may pose a threat to patients. We took a vote on it, and decided that we will grant you a three month trial opportunity. If you don't let us down, we will grant you full time employment. How does that sound to you?"

Allison's jaw basically scraped the floor. A hospital was actually willing to bend the rules and give her a chance. She didn't know whether she wanted to cry, or jump up and do a happy dance.

"I uh – that'd be amazing," Allison stuttered.

Margaret's face broke out into a grin, "That's wonderful to hear. Now the hospital offers bi-monthly, CPR and first aid courses. The next set starts in two weeks. After you pass those and become re-certified, you will be able to start working." Margaret then stood up and held out her hand for a shake.

"Thank you so much," Allison managed to articulate through her shock, as she stood up to shake Margaret's hand.

"It's my pleasure. I know you will become an asset St. Thomas' team. You can register for the courses at the information desk at the front of the hospital," Margaret said as walked around her desk, and opened up the office door.

"Thank you so much, I promise I will not disappoint you or the board," Allison assured her as she took her leave.

She then followed the sign queues once more, until she found the cafeteria. It took every ounce of self-control she had no to sprint to Rachel. When Allison spotted Rachel, she chuckled at the fact that Rachel looked like a worrying mother.

"Guess what?" Allison squealed a little too loudly, causing people other than Rachel to look in her direction as she approached her table.

"Did you get it?" Rachel's wide eyes conveyed how hopeful she was for Allison.

"Yes I did!" Allison chimed, unable to hide her excitement any longer.

"That's so great! I am so happy for you!" Rachel exclaimed as she pulled Allison into a tight embrace.

"Thank you so much," Allison replied she hugged Rachel. She knew that if it wasn't for Rachel's enduring efforts, she would probably be stuck working some low-grade, fast food job.

"So how was it? Was she scary? She kind of came off like a prude the few times I spoke with her," Rachel dug in for details as she broke the embrace.

"She was actually quite easy going for a healthcare admin," Allison told the truth. "In two weeks I need to take some courses to get my First aid and CPR up to date. After I pass those, I am clear to start working!"

"And where do we sign up for that?" Rachel was ecstatic to see Allison so vibrant.

"She said at the information desk by the main entrance," Allison replied.

"Well, let's go get that done! We have a lot more stuff we need to do for you today."

Xxx

Allison was lying down on her bed at Willie's Motel, trying to recuperate from her hectic day. It was 8:30 at night, and Rachel had just left her. She couldn't believe that only twelve hours ago, she was released from prison.

In that short time frame she became free civilian, who had a decent job, owned a 2005 Dodge truck, and had a driver's license and registration on the way. On top of it all, she and Rachel even picked out an apartment for her to move into. It would be a week or so until she would be able to move in, but she wasn't about to complain. Living in an old motel for a week, was like living at a Hilton hotel compared to prison.

Tomorrow Allison would top by the boutique down the block, and pick herself up a few outfits, seeing as the only clothes she owned were the ones she was wearing.

After Rachel and Allison had left St. Thomas, Rachel surprised Allison; she gave Allison back half of the legal fees she had given her over the past six and half years. After paying for her truck in full, and three months' rent on her apartment, she had two-hundred seventy five thousand left; more than enough to get her back up onto her feet.

There was only one more thing she wanted to do before her whirlwind of a day ended. She sat up, zipped up her knee high, brown leather boots, and left her room.

She walked straight for three blocks, took a right, and found herself approaching the TM Automotive compound. She was relieved to see that it was still bustling with activity, so there was a good chance he was still there.

When she walked into the compound she noticed that there was a herd of Dyna motorcycles lined up in a row between the SAMCRO clubhouse, and the TM automotive building. To not chance running into any of the members who might recognize her (even though she knew the chances were slim), she decided to see if anybody was in the garage office. When she walked up to the door, she was relieved to see that it was open and that there was a lady sitting at the desk inside.

"Hello," Allison called out as she knocked on the door.

The older looking woman looked up from her paper work, clearly irritated by the disturbance, "You here to get your car fixed honey?"

"No," Allison replied curtly, unimpressed by the woman's tone, "I was just wondering if Juice Ortiz is around?"

The lady's lip parted slightly in shock, "Why?"

"Is he, or isn't he?" Allison spewed. She was tired, and the last thing she wanted to do was play a back and forth game of passive aggressive, bullshit.

"He's not," the woman stated as took off her reading glasses and threw them onto her desk. She stood up and walked up to Allison so they were face to face, "What your name honey?"

"Who wants to know?" Allison retorted, unfazed by the lady's attempted intimidation.

"Gemma Teller-Morrow," she huffed.

"Allison Lowrance," Allison replied. She got an internal thrill when she answered with her maiden name, and not he ex's surname.

"Well _Allison_," Gemma intentionally accentuated her name, "Juice isn't here. He's locked up in Stockton - gets out in five months."

"That explains a lot," Allison mumbled to herself. She wondered why she hadn't gotten a letter or call from Juice in a while. "Does he have visitation privileges?"

"Why does that concern you sweetie?" Gemma raised an inquisitive brow at her.

"If you don't tell me, I'll find somebody who will," Allison had about enough of this bitch's shit.

"Yeah he does. Not sure about a conjugal thought sweetie," Gemma felt pleased at being able get in a jab.

Who the hell did this chick think she was, just waltzing into TM and talking to Gemma like that?

"Thanks," Allison replied purely fake tone as she turned around to leave. She knew that there wasn't any point in acknowledging Gemma's attempt at a burn.

When Allison's license and registration came in, she would be making a trip out to Stockton. What a surprise Juice will have when he sees Allison, being the one with the "Visitor", sticker on her chest.

Xxx

Kozik, Chibs, and Filthy Phil, were all working in the garage when Allison and Gemma were talking. The door connecting the garage to the office was open, so the guys heard the entire conversation.

When they saw Allison walking away from the garage, Chibs put the wrench he was holding aside, and called out, "Eh' Gemma, get out here."

Gemma walked out into the garage, "Yeah?" Her tone portrayed that she was still worked up by Allison's visit.

"What in tarnation was that all about?" Chibs asked, voicing all the men's thoughts.

"Some gash named Allison, looking for Juice. I don't remember Juice having a girl named Allison though," Gemma's mind was churning. Outsiders, especially rude bitches, were low on her list of people to trust and tolerate.

Chibs nodded understanding. He wouldn't lie to himself, that "gash" sure had one hell of a nice body. It kind of felt like a stone dropped into his gut when Gemma said that Allison was looking for Juice.

Gemma and Chibs then went on to talk about some sort of foul up on a customer's car, and completely moved on from the topic of Allison.

Kozik however, remained as still as a statue and watched Allison disappear into the darkness when she rounded the corner, and left the TM compound.

"I'm going to punch out," Kozik mumbled to nobody in particular as he shed his grey work vest. Chibs, Gemma, and Phil acknowledged him, not really caring too much.

Kozik grabbed his kutte on the workbench, and jogged out to where his bike was parked. He quickly put on his helmet and ripped out of the compound.

He hopped that Allison wasn't too far away. He was relieved when he spotted Allison's figure walking down the sidewalk. He came up to a stop sign, and stayed still for a good minute to put distance between him and Allison.

Kozik then followed her until she disappeared into Room 16 of Willie's Motel. He parked by the curb in the parking lot, at stared at Allison's shut door.

After much internal deliberation, he decided that he wouldn't approach Allison tonight. Instead, he would stop at the liquor store on his way home and picked up a bottle of Jim Beam.

He needed smooth whiskey to silence the screaming guilt that Allison's presence had brought forth, from the catacombs of his mind. 


	2. Chapter 2

"Holy shit, I hope they don't serve us fucking tacos for supper again. I don't think my stomach can handle it," Clay Morrow complained to Juice, as he sauntered back over towards his bunk from the toilet.

"I don't think the shitter can handle it either," Juice replied as he scrunched his nose upward in revulsion at the stench Clay, had just created.

"Fuck you," Clay moaned as he lay down on his bunk below Juice.

"If those tacos are destroying you colon that much, I can't imagine what Tig and Happy are going through in their cell. And just think, you all laughed at me when I refused to eat that slop last night," Juice said as flipped a page in the book he was reading.

"Yeah well we're paying the price now," Clay grumbled as he fought back the urge to return to the toilet.

Just then, the men's cell door buzzed open and two guards stepped inside.

"Ortiz get up, you've got a visitor," one of the guards said.

Immediately Juice became suspicious. Gemma and the guys weren't supposed to come and visit until Saturday. Juice laid the book down on his chest and asked, "Really?"

"Yeah really, let's move it Ortiz," the other guard bellowed.

"Okay," Juice shook his head as he hopped down off of his bunk. He really hoped that he wasn't walking into some sort of trouble. As far as he knew, the Sons had no ongoing beefs with any other gangs or clubs at the moment since the Russians had retaliated and stabbed Jax a few months back.

As guards attached shackled Juice's wrists and ankles, a loud gurgling noise bellowed out from inside of Clay's gut. "Sweet Mother Mary," Clay cried as he ran back over to the toilet.

Thankfully, Juice and the guards vacated the cell before round three of Tuesday's taco surprise, made its departure out of Clay's body.

Juice meticulously scanned his surroundings as the guards led him through the maze of hallways and corridors, which made up Stockton State Penitentiary. His intuition told him that there wasn't trouble a foot, but who the hell could this "visitor", be?

He had no family, and his only real friends were his fellow MC members.

Maybe it James, his co-partner in the weed shop? No it couldn't be. He and James made an agreement that if one of them were to get locked up, the other one wouldn't bother the person inside. Besides, James was total germaphobe – the last place he would want to do would be to voluntarily visit was a large public facility like a prison.

Was it the club's lawyer, Lowen? But why would she want to see him specifically? If Lowen had information, she almost always only spoke to Clay or Jax.

Before his mind could jump to any more conclusions, he and his escorts arrived at the doors of the general visitation hall. The one guards knocked on the door, signaling for the person in the control room to open the door. Once inside the hall, the guards guided Juice to a table in the center of the room. After they took off his shackles and made him sit down, they left him alone to await this mystery visitor.

Juice's heart rate steadily increased as each second went by, as he stared at the door which connected the hall, to the visitors waiting area. If there was one thing he hated, it was surprises. More than anything, he wanted to break down that damn door and find out who was there to see him. But getting tasered and beaten down with a billy club, wasn't exactly what he had planned on doing with his day.

After what seemed like an eternity, a buzzer went off and the door to the visitors lounge opened. When Allison stepped into the hall, all of Juice's worries evaporated into thin air. He was absolutely flabbergasted at the sight of his old friend.

The last time Juice had written her was before just he and SAMCRO went over to Ireland; and that was ten months ago. In her response she mentioned that her appeal was making tremendous headway, but never mentioned that she may be freed anytime soon.

It took Allison, a second to spot the table where she was told Juice would be sitting at. Once she spotted him, her whole face broke out into a glowing grin.

The last time Juice had seen Allison look so happy was when he went to visit her in Tacoma nine years ago, right after she had given birth to Briella.

When Allison walked up to him, Juice immediately stood up and pulled her into a tight embrace. He squeezed her so tightly; she thought he was going crack her ribs.

"Oh my god Allie, you have no idea how happy I am to see you," Juice whispered into her neck. He was stunned to find that tears were welling in his eyes.

She tried respond, but Juice's strong arms were squeezing her so tightly that only a wheezy, squeaking noise escaped her mouth.

Thankfully for Allison's sake, a guard yelled out from the other side of the room, "That's enough contact Ortiz. Hands off, and sit down!"

Juice was so overwhelmed with emotion, he had no idea he had held onto Allison for so long. He let her go, and the two sat down on their respective sides of the metal picnic table.

"How, I mean –" Juice was at a loss for words. Allison had been inside for so long, he had almost forgotten what she looked like as a civilian.

Juice's astonishment only heightened Allison's giddy mood. She found herself having a hard time not bursting out in laughter at the dumbfounded expression on his face. "I got out five days ago," she read his mind.

"Holy shit," Juice paused to entwine his fingers with her hand that was resting on top of the table, and softened the tone of his voice, "I am so happy for you."

The tenderness of his touch and his tone sent a thrill down Allison's spine. It had been so long since a male had interacted with her in that way. The way Juice stroked the outside of her hand with his thumb was driving her crazy.

"I uh," Allison closed her eyes for a moment, and put the tingling, warm sensation she felt growing in her pants in the back of her mind, "thanks Juice."

Despite her libido screaming at her not to; Allison pulled her hand away from Juice's. It was just wrong on so many levels for her body to feeling that way because of contact with _Juice._

This just proved to her that she really needed to suck up her shame, and go by herself a vibrator.

"So where are you living? Do you have a job yet?" Juice spat one question after another like machine gun fire.

Allison chuckled at Juice's verbal bombardment, "Yes I am doing fine. My lawyer Rachel gave me back half of my legal fees from the past six and half years so, I went and bought myself a truck and the other necessitates of living life on the outside." She paused and bit her lower lip for a second, feeling very nervous about telling Juice about her living situation, "I got an R.N. job."

"Really?" Juice's jaw dropped. He figured that since Allison was a felon; no hospital or clinic would hire her due to liability issues.

"That's exactly what I thought. It's even a pediatric position… at St. Thomas Hospital." Allison's voice died off, as she felt her self-confidence deflate.

At the mention of St. Thomas, Juice's brain twigged and his eyes shone as bright as stars. "You mean in Charming!?"

"That's right," Allison replied feeling quite relieved at Juice's positive body language.

"Holy crap, that's so awesome Allie!" Juice felt like a teenage boy again. Allison living in the same vicinity as him brought back the warm and safe feelings he had, when she only lived a block away back in, Queens.

"I know, right? I was absolutely shocked when the supervisor said the hospital was willing to give chance."

"So do you have a place to stay in yet?" Juice asked.

Allison let out a deep sigh. The apartment her and Rachel secured during her first day of freedom had ironically burned down two days ago. "No, I had a place secured in that new complex on 78th Street, but some asshole kids decided it would be funny to reduce the entire building into a pile of kindling. So, I am stuck staying at Willie's Motel until I can find another apartment."

"That's some shitty luck," Juice replied feeling sorry for Allison having to stay in a place like, Willie's Motel.

"No shit," Allison scoffed while rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" A light bulb suddenly went off in Juice's mind, "Why don't you stay at my place until my time is up?"

"I don't really know about that." Allison felt like she would be intruding on Juice's privacy.

"Seriously Allie, it'd make me so happy. I have been worrying about my house sitting alone for the past ten months."

"Uh, I don't know-" Allison was reluctant to give into Juice's pleading brown eyes.

"You can use my x-box, watch my Netflix, and even use my exercise equipment. I'll call up James at the weed shop and tell him to give you whatever you want for free the next four months. Please Allison, help me out!"

"Alright, you win! A girl can only stand so much groveling," Allison chuckled.

"Great! I knew you couldn't resist these hunky Porte Rican looks," Juice teased while attempting to wiggle his eyebrows in a _seductive_ manner.

"You're a freak Juice," Allison stated dryly, which caused the two of them to break out in laughter. After their laughter had subsided, Allison's tone became more serious, "Can I ask why you are in here? Is it club complications?"

Juice stared downward at the table for a moment to hide the shame he felt inside. Yes he knew that doing time was part of his duty to the club, but late at night, when all he had were his thoughts; he felt guilt for some of the awful things he had done in the name of SAMCRO.

Growing up in Queens, Juice was a delinquent. He didn't know a single person who didn't have a problem with the authorites. However, he had only ever participated in petty crimes like shoplifting and school yard fights. So when he began to prospect, the heinous violence turned out to be quite a shock to his system.

Over the years, Juice did a good job of hiding his discomfort, and he learned how to rationalize the violence to himself - it was all in the name of the club and brotherhood.

He took comfort in knowing that he had never taken a life for personal or petty reason. Juice was happy that he had maintained a conscious over time. Feeling remorse didn't mean he was weak, or less dedicated than say Tig or Happy; it simply reminded him that there was more to him personality that just being a member of the Sons.

"The charges are for gun running. Myself, along with four other members of SAMCRO are locked up. Shit got real bad for the club this year, Allie," Juice explained hoping that Allison wouldn't be pissed off or disappointed at his reply.

Allie sighed as she shook her head slowly. She didn't need to hear any more from Juice. Allison was an old lady for four years before she was locked up – she knew how the rest of the tale would go, "All that matters Juice, is that you're okay."

"Yeah, I guess your right" Juice said while nodding. He knew that Allison spoke words of wisdom. Hard times were simply part of the deal once you agreed to put on the reaper.

"Ortiz you got one minute, wrap it up!" A guard suddenly yelled from across the room.

"This fucking place," Juice murmured to himself. He then addressed Allison, "So you good with staying at my place?"

"Yeah I guess so," Allison knew that she really wasn't in a position to be able to say no to Juice's generosity.

"Great, so my address is 2219 Vermilion Avenue, NW. Gemma keeps a set of spare keys to my place at TM, while I'm stuck in here. She had been stopping by every other day to make sure my place is okay. Just explain to her that we are old friends, and that I am okay you crashing at my place for a few months."

"I hope Gemma will believe me… she and I have already met. My first night in Charming, I went to TM looking for you," Allison stated with irritation blatant in her tone.

Juice grimaced as he imagined how "civil" that conversation must have been. He knew that Allison and Gemma were on an even playing field when it came to how they handled confrontation, "Well if she gives you trouble, tell her to come and see me. Her old man is Clay Morrow; SAMCRO's president. Stockton fucked up their policy of no gang members sharing a cell, so Clay and I are cellmates for the time being. I'll tell Clay, to tell Gemma, to give you leave you alone once you move into my place. I'm sure you don't want the club sniffing around your business."

Before Allison could reply, two guards walked up from behind Juice. "Alright, time is up Ortiz - the little lady is going to have to leave."

"I'll come by to see you soon Juice. Thanks so much for everything," Allison managed to say before the guard hulled Juice away towards the inmate exit.

Once he had disappeared she sighed and stood up. As she left Stockton, she couldn't help but to feel a mixture of relief and guilt. The relief was because she wasn't the one being hauled back into a dingy cell for a change. However, she felt guilty because it seemed so wrong to it was Juice, who was wearing the CDC uniform.

Despite the fact that Juice was grown man, who was more than capable of his own decisions; Allison still saw him as the sweet teenager who dated her little sister for three years.

She had known Juice since he was thirteen years old. Even though he was a grown man now, she still felt as protective over him as she did all those years ago.

Juice definitely wasn't the brightest bulb in the shed, but he had a heart of gold. He also was the most loyal person she had ever met. Once he decided to form a relationship with you, it was virtually impossible to shoo him away. Even after Juice and her sister had broken up, Juice still came around her house to hang out with Allison. When she found out that he wanted to be a prospect for SAMCRO, she worried that he wouldn't have what it took to deal with "the life". Juice had smarts, but not the kind of smarts that one needed to succeed in the club.

All of that said, Juice had been patched in for six years already and he was doing just fine, despite his current incarceration.

Allison shook her head as she climbed into her truck. She often wondered if her relationship with Paul encouraged Juice to join the Sons.

As Allison turned the ignition over, she reminded herself that it was pointless to fret over Juice's predicament - it was his life, and he had chosen his own path. She turned the radio to the local country station, and then peeled out of Stockton's parking lot.

She was happy that it took forty minutes to get back to Charming from Stockton, so she could clear her mind of the negative thoughts before she had to face the Queen of SAMCRO, again.

xxx

It was 4:24pm, and Allison knew that she couldn't put off going over to TM Automotive any longer. She put the book she was reading down onto the nightstand, and rolled out of bed.

Facing Gemma wasn't the reason at to why Allison was hesitant about going over to TM – she had dealt with bigger and tougher bitches before. The fact that Gemma represented the association that had taken away her freedom and her family was what bothered Allison so much.

Allison knew that if she were to stay in Charming, she would have to try and neutralize her hatred for the immense harm the Sons of Anarchy had caused her. If she didn't, she knew that trouble with the MC would ensue. Also, she knew that she had to learn to tolerate the club because of her relationship with Juice. Juice was one of her best friends, and the club was such a huge part of his life.

As Allison stared at herself in the mirror on the bathroom door, she decided that facing Gemma could wait for another half an hour so she could have a shower. Allison wanted her look to match her, no bullshit attitude. Going up to TM, in black sweat pants and a baggy red hoodie, wouldn't give Gemma the right impression.

Of all of Allison's new found freedoms, taking a private shower had to be her favorite. It was relieving that she didn't have a dozen people staring at her scarred up legs and thighs.

Even though the scarring was seven years old, Allison still was not able to look at herself naked in the mirror. When she looked down at her legs, the face of her ex-husband Paul floated into her mind. More specifically, she remembered the sick, joyful look upon his face as he mutilated her body.

Her long, shapely, legs were the feature that Paul had loved most about her body. When she had "betrayed" him, he made sure that no other human being would ever find her best feature attractive ever again – and he did a damn good job at it too.

That horrific night, marked the beginning of her end as a submissive old lady. She knew that from that point forward, she needed to do whatever it took to make sure she kept Briella safe from her monstrous husband, and his deleterious companions.

Allison shuddered at the memory of Paul's response to her shift in attitude, as she stepped out of the shower. She wrapped herself up in a towel and exited the bathroom. To put that bastard's memory out of her mind, she turned on the radio on the alarm clock.

She then proceeded to change into a pair of dark wash jeans, and a tight fitting black ribbed tank top. After blow drying her hair and twisting it up into a messy bun, Allison decided it was time to face the queen of SAMCRO. She threw her room key into her purse, and left her room. Instead of taking her truck, she decided to walk to TM since it was so nice outside.

As each block went by, Allison felt herself become increasingly anxious. It was like there was this small voice inside her head that was warning her of some impending, heavy circumstance waiting for her at TM. What the circumstance was – she hadn't the slightest clue.

When she entered the compound, she was happy to see that there were more customers and ordinary folk milling about, than crow eaters and club members. As Allison strolled towards the garage office where she had met Gemma before, she felt a few pairs of eyes on her, but she didn't care. Allison was on a mission; when she was a mission, nothing or nobody could deter her from her objective.

Allison knocked assertively on the steel door, which had "OFFICE" written in black, bold letters. She heard somebody shuffle inside and stomp towards the door. She was surprised when the door opened to be face to face with a very tall, hairy, obese man.

"Can I help you mam?" The man asked as he adjusted his greasy looking glasses.

"Uh yeah, I need to speak with Gemma," Allison's said still a bit in shock at the size of the behemoth in front of her.

"Gemma went home for the day. If it's a problem with your vehicle I can help you out." The man stated nicely.

"No, it's a personal matter," Allison replied feeling a bit awkward with the situation.

"Would you like to leave a message for Gemma?" The man suggested.

"Uh – actually, is there anybody around who is close with Juice Ortiz?" Allison decided to try and see if there was somebody else around who could help her secure a key to Juice's place. ,

"Yeah… just hold on a second," the man furrowed his eyebrows together, feeling very confused about Allison's odd request. He opened the door that connected the garage to the office, and hollered, "Chibs can you come in here for a second?"

Chibs put the socket wrench he was holding to the side and walked toward the direction of the office. "What's up Phil?" Chibs inquired as he wiped the grease on his hands off onto his grey work shirt.

"This lady is here asking for somebody who is close to Juice," Phil relayed the situation to Chibs.

"Uh huh," Chibs was just as dumbfounded by the request as Phil was, "I got it Philly. How about you head into the clubhouse and help Chucky unload that new shipment of beer we just got in."

Phil nodded at the Scotsman in his usual casual demeanor, and exited through the garage to the clubhouse.

When Chibs entered the office, he was stunned to see the "gash" that came looking for Juice five days ago. He struggled to speak for a moment as his eyes travelled up and down Allison's toned figure, "You uh – Phil says yer looking for somebody close to Juicy boy?"

"Yeah," Allison's found herself somewhat tongue tied as she took in the man in front of her. His soft brown eyes, salt and pepper hair, and toned biceps and shoulders; sent warm bolts of electricity down her spine. "I went to see Juice at Stockton today. He wants me to stay at his place until his time is up. Said that Gemma keeps a set of keys to his house around here."

Chibs raised an eyebrow at Allison, as he scratched at his bearded chin, "Aye, she does. You know Juicy quite well then?"

"Known him since he was thirteen," Allison replied while repositioning her purse strap. Her tone wasn't indignant or cold sounding - in fact she sounded quite timid. The man's incredibly handsome looks and accent stuck had stricken nerve in her.

"I see," Chibs' eyes seemed to light up as he closed the gap between him and Allison. "Filip Telford, but ya' can call me Chibs," Chibs introduced himself as he held out his hand for a shake.

"Allison Lowrance," Allison responded as he shook Chibs' hand. His firm, yet very gentle touch sent a bolt of heat right down to Allison's centre.

"It's a pleasure lassie," Chibs said as his he pulled his hand away from Allison. "Yer in need a place to stay in I gather?"

"Yes, I – I uh just got released from doing some time a few days ago," Allison's heart rate increased rapidly as she divulged her situation. She figured she should though, seeing as how friendly Chibs was acting towards her.

Chibs nodded his head, not really sure how to respond to Allison's comment. Sure she had a tough demeanour, but she certainly did not strike him as the convict type. "Well congratulations Allison. I don't think that yer lying to me, but I know Gem would throw a royal fit if she found out I just gave away the keys to Juice's house without checking with him first. I'll head up to Stockton tomorrow and have a little chit chat with him to confirm. How bout' you stop by tomorrow around three to pick up the keys?"

Allison wanted to tell Chibs to just give her the fucking keys, but she knew that she had to respect his wishes. After all, she was just some random ex-con whom Chibs had never seen before. She would have probably questioned the man's intelligence if he had just handed her the keys, without double checking with Juice first.

"That sounds fair. Thanks for your help," Allison said as she turned around to leave.

"Aye, anytime lassie," Chibs drawled as he checked out Allison's well defined backside. This encounter only re-enforced the sexual attraction he had felt, when he had seen Allison five days ago.

If Allison wasn't just some bimbo who was trying to con Juice; Chibs made a mental note that he needed to get to know her better. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so much energy from just a simple handshake with a woman.

xxx

Allison was walking past the clubhouse on her way out of the compound, when Kozik and Opie suddenly emerged from inside the building, laughing very loudly.

The volume of their laughter startled Allison. Her senses kicked in causing her body to freeze like a statue.

She knew that laugh…

No it couldn't be him – Kozik was all the way over in Tacoma. It was just her mind playing a trick on her, that's all. What business could he possibly have with SAMCRO?

As much as she wanted to turn her head around to see if could be Kozik, she couldn't persuade her muscles to move.

She made a vow several years ago to never see that son of a bitch ever again. So, she took a deep breath and continued on her way out of the compound without looking behind her.

Kozik being in Charming was a preposterous notion anyways. After what happened between Kozik some other member's dog, she highly doubted he would ever be welcome in SAMCRO ever again.

Herman Kozik, was simply never a man Allison hadn't seen for six and half years, and would never see again as long she walked on Earth.

Xxx

"Dude what's wrong?" Opie asked Kozik, as he watched Kozik go from a jovial mood, to a totally disconnected one.

Kozik couldn't peel his eyes away from Allison's disappearing figure. After the night she had come around looking for Juice, Kozik got so shit faced drunk that he passed out at four am, and didn't wake up until seven pm, the next day.

Deep down inside he had hoped every day for the past six and half years, that Allison would find a way to get her sentence revoked. He knew just as well her, and most of SAMTAC, that Allison never should have been locked up in the first place. But because of his actions during her trial, a part of Kozik also hoped that he would never have to see Allison ever again. He didn't know if he had the balls to face the love of his life, after betraying her so badly and leaving her to fend for herself.

After not getting a response from Kozik, Opie looked at his brother, watch the woman walking away in the distance.

"Uh huh," Opie mumbled to himself. The thousand yard stare, combined with the vulnerability apparent in Kozik's crystal blue eyes told him all he needed to know. "An ex -old lady?" Opie asked in his usual to the point fashion.

Without tearing his eyes away from Allison, Kozik replied, "Yeah, something like that…"

xxx


	3. Chapter 3

A distant, fuzzy sounding, ringing kept echoing throughout Kozik's head. Slowly the noise became louder and louder, until finally his alcohol riddled brain came to life and told his body to start functioning.

When his eyelids fluttered open and his vision came into focus, he hadn't the slightest clue as to why he was lying on his stomach, in the middle of his kitchen. Kozik tilted his head downwards slightly, and spotted an empty bottle of Jim Beam lying a few feet away. Suddenly it all came flooding back to him like it had every morning for the past six days – Allison was in Charming.

His thoughts of Allison quick vanished, when he realized that his cell phone was ringing on the kitchen table. He knew he should answer it, seeing as it was probably the club - but it was too much damn effort to spring to his feet at that moment.

Kozik felt like a freight train had run him over. His head felt like it weighed three-hundred pounds, and his mouth felt drier than the sand in the Sahara Desert. All four of his limbs felt like they were made out of gelatin. Also, the slightest movement made the churning in his stomach alarmingly violent.

He decided that it would be best to just close his eyes, and go back to sleep. Whoever was calling him could burn in hell.

Xxx

_Allison sat beside Kozik, on a bench carved out of a ginormous pine tree log. The sides of their bodies were touching, while they held each other's hand. _

_As she gazed at the beautiful Yellowstone, forest scenery, which was accentuated by the fading pink sunset; she was certain that sitting on the edge of this cliff with Kozik by her side, was close as human being could get to experiencing heaven while on Earth. _

_In the far distance, the two could hear the hooting of an early awaken owl. _

"_That one's a cheeky little bastard," Kozik commented on the owl with a chuckle. _

"_Well they do say that the early bird gets the worm," Allison replied sarcastically._

_Kozik got a mischievous look upon his face. He slid his hand out of Allison's grasp and placed it high up on the inside of her left thigh, "According to this morning's love making session, I'd say that is a true statement."_

_Allison felt her cheeks grow red, as she thought about how loud she as rode him that morning. Apparently the crisp morning air, combined with the sweet smell of sap and pine trees turned put her libido into overdrive. If there was any wildlife around that morning, she was sure her repeated cries of "Holy shit," and "Fuck Manny," were more than enough to scare it away. _

"_What are you blushing about," Kozik couldn't help but to laugh at the mousy expression on Allison's face. Her embarrassed expression was probably the cutest thing he had ever seen._

_Allison smirked and shook her head, "What do you think? I am sure everybody within a twenty mile radius heard us this morning." _

"_Well good. Now all of these middle class schmucks know how fucking sexy my woman is in bed," Kozik replied proudly. _

_Allison rolled her eyes and slapped him on the chest, "So are you glad that you allowed me to drag you out here to camp?" Allison remarked smugly to as she scooted closer to Kozik on the bench._

_Kozik bit his lower lip, wrapped one of his arms around Allison's waist and pulled her as close to his body as possible. He stared deeply into the eyes of the beautiful woman beside him. The look of gentle, passionate, understanding that he had noticed so many years ago in her hazel eyes, made his body melt in exaltation. _

_With his free hand, Kozik tucked a loose chunk of hair behind Allison's ear before he spoke, "Before this week, I just felt so lost inside._ _I have always been that dude whose actions fuck shit up, and then somebody or something, ends up getting hurt. I have been going down a destructive path ever since I caught a piece of shrapnel from that fucking land mine, and got discharged from the Marines. When I'm with you Allie, you make me feel like a whole man – that I have good soul. It doesn't matter if we are making love, spending time with Briella, or even cooking supper together. I am so tired Allison..." _

_Allison felt her breath hitch hearing Kozik's statement. She put a hand on her his stubbly and pressed her body into his. "Are you… what are you saying Manny?" Her tone was tender and full of hope._

"_I'm saying let's do it. I want us to start putting the parts in motion. The way I have felt this week, I want to feel like this all the time. I love with all of my heart Allison." Kozik whispered, feeling stinging hot tears welling in the corners of his eyes. _

"_You foolish dumb blonde," Allison whispered with a small smirk, before she raised her other hand to Kozik's other cheek, "I love you too." _

xxx

"Juicy boy!" Chibs' exclaimed loudly as he sat down across from Juice, and pulled him into a bro hug.

"Good to see you man," Juice chuckled at the eccentric Scotsman.

"Good to see ya' too," Chibs replied as he let go of Juice. "Sorry it's been so long since I've been up here."

"Don't worry about it dude. You're busy, I get it," Juice smiled.

Chibs nodded and scratched his beard before he spoke, "There was a nice lookin' lassie that stopped by TM last night-"

"Allison," Juice cut Chibs off, "did Gemma give her the keys to my place?"

"Gemma had left for the day, by the time Allison had stopped by. We had a little chit chat, said you wanted her to stay in yer' place?"

"Yeah that's right. Allie is like my oldest friend, I trust her completely," Juice explained. He knew that he had never mentioned to Allison to any of the other members before, so he understood the apprehension in Chibs' voice.

"You two just friends?" Chibs prodded as he raised his eyebrows at Juice.

"Ugh no! I'd never hook up with Allison!" Juice grimaced at the notion of him and Allison being romantically involved.

"Somethin' wrong with you boy?" Chibs leaned back in his seat with his mouth gaping. He was absolutely flabbergasted at Juice's reaction. He didn't know what straight man in his right mind would be turned off by Allison.

"God no! That'd be like hooking up with my big sister." Juice quickly explained himself to avoid any further ridicule from Chibs.

"Ah, okay Juicy," Chibs winked at Juice while laughing. "I told her I would give her the keys once I doubled checked with you. I don't think you'd be happy with me, if I just gave your place up to some stranger without checking with you."

Juice felt touched by Chibs' concern, "Thanks man, but you nor anybody else, needs to worry about Allison. She needs her space to figure her shit out right now."

"Whatever you say Juice," Chibs paused for a moment, unsure if he should ask the question that was on his mind. He decided he might as well – the worst that could happen would before Juice to tell him that it was none of his bloody business. "Allison mentioned last night, that she had just finished serving some time. Do you know what that is all about?"

Juice twitched his mouth side to side, and let out a heavy sigh before replying to Chibs' question, "Yeah I do. Let's just say she was doing time, which she shouldn't have been doing in the first place. Her ex-husband and his associates really screwed her over… It's not my place to say any more."

Allison's incarceration was a tricky topic that needed to be handled very delicately - especially around his brothers. The last thing he wanted to do was divulge too much information, and have Allison possibly harassed by the MC.

Chibs suddenly felt full of rage. No woman should ever have to endure abuse from the hands of a man. What kind of a sick bastard would let his old lady take, the fall for something he was responsible for?

"Aye, I understand. I'll make sure the Gemma and the club get the message," Chibs assured Juice. If there was one thing his fellow brothers understood; it was that it can take a mighty long time to readjust to living on the outside.

Chibs couldn't help but to feel excited by the fact that Juice and Allison, did not have any sort of romantic connection. He really could not wait until Allison stopped by the shop later in the afternoon to pick up Juice's keys.

Xxx

"Oh shit Kozy." The sound of Opie's gruff voice by his ear was enough to wake Kozik out of his slumber.

Without opening his eyes, Kozik grumbled, "Why are you in my house?"

"Dude its 6:00 o'clock at night. Have you been passed out this entire time?"

It took a moment for Opie's words to register. When they did, Kozik's eye shot open and he stood up as fast as a lightning bolt.

"Oh shit," Kozik groaned as he clutched his stomach and ran to his kitchen sink. After a few very excruciating moments of regurgitating a bottle of whiskey, and a ham, lettuce, and mustard sandwich from the previous night; Kozik wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand.

Opie opened up the fridge, grabbed a water bottle, and shoved it in from of Kozik's head which was still bowed over the sink.

"Ugh, thanks brother," Kozik groaned as he grabbed the water out of Opie's hand. He then staggered on over to the kitchen table and sat down on a chair.

Before he replied Opie, rinsed out the sink, grabbed himself a bottle of water from Kozik's fridge, and picked up the empty Jim Beam bottle on the floor. He then pulled out a chair for himself and sat down. "This why you missed the gun exchange with the Mayan's today?" Opie asked as he set the empty bottle down onto the table.

"Ah shit brother, I'm sorry. I didn't-" Kozik tried to explain, but Opie cut him off.

"This is the second time this week you have been M.I.A. My old man was furious when you didn't show up today, and don't even get me started on Gemma," Opie stated. Beating around the bush wasn't exactly his style, so he continued on, "Does you pickling yourself in a bottle of booze, have anything to do with that redhead walking out of TM last night?"

Kozik nearly choked on the sip of water he was taking. Was it really that obvious…?

"No," Kozik blurted out his lie.

Opie shot the blonde and exasperated glare, "Really brother? Then explain to me why there is a photo album full of pictures of you and her sitting on your coffee table."

Kozik's eyes widened and his heart began to beat incredibly fast; he was pretty sure he was going to be sick again. He wanted to refute Opie's accusation, but no words came out of his mouth – Opie had caught him red handed.

"Uh huh," Opie said with a hint of self-righteousness in his tone. He scratched his bearded chin as he spoke, "you want to spill the beans brother? I mean things had to be pretty badly."

Kozik bowed his head and shook it slowly, "You should go Opie. Thanks for checking in on me, I'll be okay. Tell your Pop and Gemma, that I'm fine and I'll be at the garage tomorrow."

"Alright brother, see you tomorrow." Opie sighed, disappointed by Kozik's standoffishness; but not surprised in the least.

Opie knew that in time the truth about Kozik and Allison would come out. It was very evident that Kozik was hurting big time. So, as long as he didn't start using again Opie, would leave the matter alone.

xxx

Allison's could feel that her hands were jittery and her palms were damp with nervous sweat as she walked past the SAMCRO clubhouse. Even though logic told her that it was basically impossible that it was Kozik she had heard laughing the night before, but her gut told her otherwise.

She had barely gotten any sleep because she had been up all night, running through possible scenarios of what might happen if she did actually see that blond son of a bitch again. The thought of kicking him in the balls hard enough to send them back up into his body, had crossed her mind once or twice…

"There ya' are lassie. I was beginning to think ya' wouldn't show," A familiar Scottish voice brought Allison out of her fretting.

Allison couldn't help but to smirk at the sexy, yet cheesy grin plastered across the approaching man's face. After her and Chibs had walked a few more pace, they were standing face to face a few feet away from the office door.

"I'm sorry. I had to take care of a couple of errands today, and it took a little longer than I had anticipated," Allison lied with a friendly smile upon her face.

Really, Allison had been lounging around in her motel room all day, having a panic attack about made up scenarios about her and Kozik. By the time she had gotten her head out of her ass, she realized that it was 6:45 – she had agreed to meet Chibs at 3:00.

"You consider four hours later_, a little longer than anticipated_?" Chibs teased Allison.

Allison chuckled at the jolly Scotsman, "Alright it was _a lot_ longer than anticipated. I am glad you are still around – you didn't stick around just for me did you?"

She would feel bad if Chibs had waited around for four whole hours, just to give her a lousy set of house keys.

"Na, I had a bunch of work to catch up on around ere'," Chibs partially lied. Yes he did stick around to catch up on some work, but if it wasn't for Allison he would have been long gone come 5:00pm.

"Glad to hear," Allison replied feeling relieved. She did not catch onto Chibs' bluff.

"Aye, Juicy's stuff is in the office," Chibs smiled as he wrapped an arm around Allison's waist and guided her toward the open red door.

At first the shock of Chibs wrapping his arm around her waist startled her, but once she felt the warm heat of his toned body against hers; she relaxed completely.

Chibs was quite happy to say the least, that Allison had allowed him to keep his arm wrapped around her waist until they had entered the office. Once inside, Chibs shut the outside door behind them and reluctantly slid his arm off away from her waist. He walked over to the desk and opened up the top drawer. Allison lingered by the door as Chibs tried to find the empty cottage cheese container which Gemma kept all of the spare keys in, he spoke "I saw Juice today, and he was adamant to say the least about insisting you stay at his house. Ah, here we go!" Chibs proclaimed as pulled container out and set it on the desk. Once fished out the keys that belonged to Juice he closed the lid and sloppily threw the container back into the desk.

Allison stepped forward as Chibs tossed her the keys, "Thanks, I really appreciate this."

"Anytime darling," Chibs replied as he scribbled something down on a piece of paper. He then walked up to Allison and held out the piece of paper, "Juice made it very clear that would like yer' space, but if you ever need anything lassie, don't be afraid to call me."

Allison's jaw dropped slightly as she accepted the scrap of paper that had Chibs' number written on in. "I uh, that's – thanks I'll keep it in mind." She stuttered, mentally kicking herself in the butt for her lack of composure.

"Yer' welcome. I'll make sure that Gemma doesn't come barking on your door either," Chibs added as Allison turned around to leave.

Allison paused with her hand on the doorknob, and turned around. Kozik's damn face had been clogging up her mind so badly, that she had almost forgotten about Gemma. "Thanks, that'd make my life a hell of a lot easier."

"Aye, it would for most of us," Chibs laughed.

"Goodnight Filip," Allison smiled before she left.

"Night," Chibs nodded. When Allison was a good distance away from garage, Chibs leaned against the doorframe, and admired her figure as she walked away.

He hoped like hell that within the next few days, he would answer his phone and hear her voice on the other end of the line.

Xxx

Kozik sat on the floor his shower, with his knees pulled up to his chest and his head in his hands. The steaming hot water poured down his body, relieving the aching effects of his hangover somewhat.

Through the trickling of the water, he could hear _Zac Brown Band's_ song Free, blasting from the stereo in his bedroom. The words in the chorus of the song, amplified the aching in his heart.

_Just as free  
Free as we'll ever be  
Just as free  
Free as we'll ever be  
Ever be_

_No we don't have a lot of money  
No we don't have a lot of money  
No we don't have a lot of money  
All we need is love_

"God I'm so sorry Allison," Kozik cried out as he wept into his hands.

xxx

**A/N: Hello there. So I am sorry that there was a delay in getting this out. It has been a crazy week and half for me! **

**There is a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter, but I won't point out exactly what it is because that would ruin all of the fun! :P **

**Thank you to all the people who have followed, favorited, and reviewed this story so far. I really appreciate the feedback.**

**Thanks for taking out the time to read, and please review! **


	4. Chapter 4

It was 10:30am, and TM Automotive was hopping. The garage kept getting call after call about blown out tires, from people coming off of Highway 99. The ongoing construction, combined with the vast amounts of summer tourists travelling up and down California, meant that business wasn't going to slow down any time soon.

Gemma had just gotten off of the phone – another damn family travelling south, ran over a nail and blew out a tire.

As irritating as the non-stop calls were, Gemma knew she couldn't bitch – the increase in business filled in the gap that the lack of club activity created, while the Clay and boys were inside.

Gemma got up from the desk, and stood in the doorway that separated garage from her office. Her arms were crossed, and her face was contorted into a very unimpressed scowl.

"Got another call for a tow on the ninety-nine turnoff, south side. Who wants to go?" Gemma hollered out into the garage.

Her question was met with a bunch preoccupied growls, and head shakes. She let out a deep sigh - on days like this she felt like she was a bitchy old school teacher.

"Miles, you don't look busy. Go grab Kozik, and head out to the 99," Gemma ordered.

Miles dropped the socket wrench he was holding onto the concrete floor. The loud clanging noise caused a few of the men to stop what they were doing for a second and stare at the befuddled man.

"Uh, I don't think that'll work Gemma…" Miles said with beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Excuse me?" Gemma was outraged at the new patched member's reply.

"K, k, Kozik – uh he hasn't shown up yet today," Miles stammered nervously. All morning the men had been dancing around the topic of the blonde's absence. After witnessing the fit that Gemma threw the previous day, nobody wanted to be the poor sucker who had to tell Gemma, that Kozik was still missing.

"Where the hell is Kozik? Has anybody heard from him at all? He should have been here half an hour ago!" Gemma exclaimed sharply to no one in particular. She stamped her foot to emphasize her point.

Chibs looked up from the engine he was working on, "Yesterday after the meet with the Mayans, Opie said he'd stop by his place ta' make sure Kozy was okay."

"_And…?"_ Gemma scowled.

"Christ I don't know what happened! Go talk ta' Op – he's out back with Phil ripping the engine out of that written off Buick." Chibs replied indignantly.

"You can bet your Scottish ass I will!" Gemma refuted furiously.

As she stomped through the garage, and headed toward the backdoor that led out to the lot where they kept all of the cars to be worked on; all of the men took a stepped out of the way. It was very obvious that Gemma was seeing red.

"Opie!" Gemma yelled as the she flung open the beat up, metal door.

Both Opie and Phil lifted their heads out from under the hood of the Buick. They had identical expression of wide eyed, deep instilled fear plastered on their faces.

"What the hell is wrong with Kozik? He should have been here an hour and a half ago!" Gemma exclaimed as he stormed towards the two men.

"He said he'd be here today. Give him a little bit longer to show up," Opie replied truthfully.

"This damn construction has us running around like headless chickens! We _need _Kozik's hands today!" Gemma snorted.

Opie let out a sigh. He did not wanting to divulge any more information about Kozik's situation, but he knew that if he didn't Gemma, would drive over to Kozik's house and rip him a good one. Opie knew that typhoon Gemma, was the last thing Kozik needed at the moment, "He's dealing with some personal shit. He just needs some time. If he doesn't show up by lunch, I'll drive over and see what's up."

"Alright, but if he is late I am coming with you Opie!" Gemma knew Opie was right, but that was the last thing she would admit. She took a second to calm herself down before she addressed Phil, "Go with Miles, and pick up a blue Chevy Colbalt out on the 99."

"Yes Mam." Phil promptly replied. He then headed off toward the garage, followed by Gemma.

"No wait," Opie suddenly called out, as he came jogging up to the pair, "I'll go with Miles – Phil can handle the Buick by himself."

Gemma raised her eyebrows, "Well alright, if you want to."

Opie nodded, and quickly walked by Gemma and Phil, and back into the garage.

Phil gave Gemma a glance for confirmation. When she nodded her head, Phil casually sauntered back toward the Buick.

Gemma however, stood still a moment and pondered why Opie, volunteered to go out on a pickup. She had known Opie since the day he was born. He rarely – if ever – volunteered to put himself in a social situation. So why would he volunteer to go out pickup?

Opie was definitely up to something…

Xxx

Kozik had experienced plenty of hangovers in his lifetime, but his current one definitely took the cake.

His head was pounding so hard, it felt like somebody was hitting him on the back of the head with a hammer, every few seconds. Even though he had drunk an ocean of water, his body still yearned for hydration. However, Kozik did catch one break; the six hours of sleep he had gotten had taken away most of his nausea.

He sighed as he slung his khaki backpack full of water bottles and Tylenol across his back. He knew that the guys would josh him about it bringing his own water, but he really didn't care. Kozik's poor physical state was nothing compare to how shitty he felt mentally.

How naive was he to really think that karma wouldn't come back and bite him in the ass?

Since that god awful day when SAMTAC got the call saying that Allison had been sentenced - Kozik wished he could have turned back the clocks and testified for her trial.

He was the only person who knew everything about how fucked up her domestic life was with Paul. He knew he could have saved her. He yearned with all of his heart to save her… but it was a club decision. He couldn't betray the club because it possibly would have put several lives in danger.

Kozik shook his head, wanting to rid his brain of all his dark emotions. He was just about to straddle himself across his Dyna, when he saw the TM towing truck coming screeching to a halt in front of his driveway. He was surprised the passenger door opened, and Opie climbed out.

"Shit," Kozik muttered under his breath.

As Opie approached Kozik, he was relieved to see that Kozik was wearing his grey work shirt under his kutte. He did not want to have to give the blonde another lecture about shrugging off his responsibilities.

"Sup dude? I was just about to head over to the garage," Kozik addressed Opie.

"Good, because I just coming to kick your ass into gear," Opie replied with a hint of hesitation present in his tone. Kozik's scrutinizing look told Opie he needed to elaborate. "Look brother," Opie continued, "Gemma was absolutely livid a half an hour ago when she found out that you are late. She asked what was going on with you."

Kozik's stomach started to feel queasy again. He _did not_ need Gemma knowing anything at all about him and Allison, "What exactly did you say to her?"

"Just that you needed some time to work out some personal shit. I never said anything about you being hungover but, judging by your appearance and that backpack which I assume is fully of water and other goodies – she's going to figure it out."

"Thanks for the heads up brother," Kozik sighed as sat down on his bike, "You better get going. Miles looks like he is about to shit his pants if he waits any longer."

"Yeah he does," Opie chuckled as he looked over his shoulder at the truck.

xxx

Gemma looked up from her computer screen to the Harley-Davidson clock, hanging on the wall. It was 12:07 and still no sign of Kozik. She ripped her reading glasses off of her face, and threw them down onto the desk.

"Chucky, get yourself and those creepy little nubs in here!" Gemma hollered.

Within seconds, a very jittery Chucky came charging into the office from outside. He knelt down on one knee and proclaimed, "Your steadfast and ever ready squire is ready to serve the Queen of the office, in any way he can!"

"You better knock off all of that, dark ages, royal madam shit, before I chop off the remaining two fingers you have!" Gemma was not in a mood for one of Chucky's eccentric personalities.

Chucky's eyes widened in fear, "yes Mam!"

"Kozik –"

"Still is not here," Chucky finished her sentence for her.

"Well I am going to go drag his sorry self over her by his balls," Gemma huffed angrily. She stood up, grabbed her purse from beside her desk, and stormed out of the office.

Just as Gemma was about to get into her SUV, a motorcycle roared into the compound. Once recognized that it was Kozik; she slammed her car door shut, and stormed over to his parked bike.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Gemma roared as Kozik got off of his bike.

"At home," Kozik said curtly, as he took off his helmet and rested it on a handlebar.

"Home?" Gemma asked aggressively.

"Yeah," Kozik replied as he took his sunglasses off, and set them around his neck.

"Yesterday too?"

"Yes," Kozik's irritation was growing by the second.

Gemma was not at all impressed with his foul attitude. She put a hand on her hip, and snorted, "Judging by the green look on your face, I am assuming you had a bottle of booze to keep you company?" 

"Who do you think you are, my Mother? I'm going to go back to work and I suggest you do too Gemma, because there is nothing more for us to discuss." Kozik shot back, as he walked away from Gemma.

It was going to be one hell of a long day.

Xxx

"Thanks for coming shopping with me. I really appreciated the company," Allison said to Rachel as they exited Emeryville mall.

"I'll never turn down an invitation to shopping," Rachel laughed. "You sure put that money I gave you to good use today. Now you have a full wardrobe once again!"

"You will note that not one article of clothing is orange," Allison replied sarcastically.

Before she went to jail she didn't mind the colour orange but, after wearing it for several consecutive years; she loathed the colour with a passion. Every time she saw the colour it reminded her of all the dark, vile moments of her life.

It reminded her of Paul's mutilated corpse – and how she couldn't stop smashing his face in with that frying pan until it was unrecognizable.

It reminded her of Briella's shrieks of pain and fright as she lay in a pool of her own blood, with both of her femurs prominently protruding from her pierced skin.

It also reminded her of the hysterical, childlike fit she saw Kozik throw, as the cops brought her out of her house and shoved her into their cruiser.

"And I do not blame you for that!" Rachel responded when the pair reached Allison's truck. She handed Allison the two bags of hers she was holding, "here is the rest of your clothes."

"Thanks," Allison said as she grabbed the bags. She then opened the endgate and put all of her bags in the truck bed.

"So when are you moving into Juan Carlos' place?" Rachel asked.

"Tomorrow - I just got the keys last night." Allison replied with a bit of hesitation. She didn't want to tell Rachel about the whole Chibs scenario.

"That's good." Rachel was about to ask if SAMCRO had poised any problems yet, but before she could her cell phone rang. She fished it out of her purse and frowned when she saw the number, "I'm sorry, but I got to run. The D.A.'s office is calling me."

"No problem, I'll talk to you later," Allison smiled.

Rachel gave her a nod of thanks before she answered her phone, and walked away in the direction of her own vehicle.

Allison closed the endgate, rolled the down the protective cover and then got inside of the truck. Before she set her purse down on the passenger seat, she pulled out a CD. She stared at the cover of the album for almost five minutes before she built up the courage to unwrap the plastic, and popped the disc into the stereo.

As sound of a sawing fiddle slowly started to crescendo; Allison found herself being drawn back into a happier, simpler time.

Xxx

"_Mommy, look at how high I can jump!" Briella giggled as she bounced about on the large circular trampoline._

_Allison grinned at how happy her daughter looked. Going against Paul's wishes and buying that trampoline for her at the beginning of the summer, was probably one of the best choices Allison had made in a long time. _

"_I see sweetie," Allison called out from her lounger on the deck. _

_There was not one cloud in the sky on this particular July, afternoon. It was warm, but not scorching hot. Briella was happy so therefore, Allison was happy. What made the day even more enjoyable was the fact that Paul had left that morning to go visit his family in Chicago for two weeks. _

_Allison's and Paul's marriage had really deteriorated in the last four months. They fought a lot about the business arrangement the MC had with his family's enterprise in California. The arrangement required him to leave for weeks and weeks at a time. Yes, it brought in a hell of a lot more cash for SAMTAC, but every time Paul came home from one of these business trips; he was even more short-tempered and paranoid than the previous time. Paul also began to drink more and more since he began travel. She had no idea what went on while he was away to change his behaviour so drastically, and quite frankly – she was scared to find out._

_She tried to ask him after about it once, after he came home from his second trip. Paul simply told her that she was an old lady, and she shouldn't be sticking her bitchy nose into the club's affairs. He also threatened to take all of Briella's stuffed animals and burn them in front of her. He said he'd tell Briella that it was all Mommy's fault that her animals were gone, and that she was not allowed to buy anymore._

_That comment solidified Allison's suspicion that whatever was going on in California was some serious shit. For the past few years, Paul had really become a bastard, but threatening to hurt their daughter had really taken it to a whole new level. _

_Allison never really shit from Paul – or anybody for that matter. Once he had started to use threats against Briella to keep Allison, "in check" she started to become far more submissive. Allison didn't give two shits if he hurt her, but she would kill herself before she let anybody harm her baby girl. If giving in to newfound malicious and domineering tendencies meant keeping Briella safe and happy – so be it. _

_The sound of a motorcycle roaring into her neighbour's driveway brought Allison out of her thoughts about Paul. About thirty seconds later, she saw the patio door of the house directly across from her open, and the familiar sight of a chocolate lab come bounding outside, followed by her blonde haired owner. _

"_Your home early," Allison called out cheerfully._

_Kozik cracked a smile at the sight of Allison lounging in a pair of jean shorts and a lime green bikini top. Her hair was let down and was glistening in the sunlight. _

"_Wasn't much going on at the shop or with the club today," Kozik hollered back. _

"_Hi Mr. Kozik," Briella chimed as she continued to jump about on her trampoline. _

_He chuckled at the sight of a mop of black curly hair go flying up into the air every few seconds, over the top of Allison's brown painted wooden fence._

"_Are you having fun outside with your Mom, today?" Kozik asked._

"_Lots and lots of fun!" Briella answered back, still jumping away._

"_Why don't you and Molly come over for bit? We got the pool set up." Allison said as she stood up and pulled her arms upwards into a stretch._

_Kozik stood paralyzed for a moment as he watched how Allison's breasts moved upwards, and then pressed together and outward, as she brought her arms back down to her sides. _

"_Uh yeah sure, just let me just go change and we'll be right over." He managed to articulate despite the sudden throbbing in his pants._

_About ten minutes later, Kozik emerged from his house wearing a pair of black swim trunks, a plain grey t-shirt, and pair of cheap, grey, fabric flip-flops. He had a towel draped across his shoulder and Molly's black leather, Harley Davidson leash in hand. _

_He walked over to the tree that Molly was lounging under and kneeled down to her. "Come on girl, time to go chill with the hot neighbour." _

_Molly raised her furry ears upward, and gave her owner a very covetous look._

_Kozik sighed – he swore that dog understood English. _

"_Baby," Kozik said as he slowly scratched Molly behind her ears, "you know that matter what, you're always going to be my favorite girl. Nobody can keep my feet warm at night as well as you do. You can also play fetch with Briella."_

_Molly took a moment to decided whether or not he was bullshitting her or not. After she decided on the latter, Molly, willing sprung up onto her four paws._

"_Good girl," Kozik cooed as he hooked Molly's collar to the leash. _

_When Allison saw Kozik's gate open; she hopped up from the patio chair she was sitting in, put out her cigarette, and jogged down the steps of the deck to open the back gate. _

"_Look who's here Briella," Allison called out to her daughter, as Kozik and Molly stepped into their yard._

_Briella immediately stopped jumping, and craned her head over her shoulder. Once she saw the brown lab, she climbed off of her trampoline, and exited through the small mess door in the protective safety barrier._

_Her eyes shone bright with joy as she began to run toward the Labrador. _

"_Molly!" Briella squealed in delight._

_Molly perked up in excitement at the sight of the little girl bounding towards her. True to her breed, Molly was a very gentle dog and really enjoyed playing with children - especially Briella._

"_Go get her girl," Kozik said as he unhooked Molly from her leash. _

_It was hard to tell who was more excited to see one another; Molly or Briella. _

_Allison and Kozik stood still for a few moments, and watched Molly licked Briella on the face while Briella giggled. It was hard to tell who was more excited to see one another; Molly or Briella._

"_What a pair those two are," Allison chuckled._

"_Yeah, that's for sure," Kozik smiled. He scratched the back of his head nervously as he asked, "you sure this is cool. I mean Paul left this morning, right?"_

_Allison bit her upper lip, and tried not to laugh at the adorably awkward expression on Kozik's face. _

"_Yes he did. I invited you over, remember? I know we're both not spring chickens anymore, but your memory can't be that bad!" Allison teased._

_Kozik laughed – he loved it when Allison teased him. _

"_Just wanted to make sure I wouldn't end up having a tire iron cracked across the back of my skull. And for the record, you still look like a spring chicken." Kozik said as he let his eyes scan Allison's body from top to bottom._

_Hearing Kozik's last sentence made Allison's cheeks heat up. She felt a tingling, thrilling sensation travel down her spine as she felt Kozik's eyes take in her body. _

"_Ella sweetie, do you want to go back in the swimming pool with me and Mr. Kozik?" Allison asked her daughter whom was still busy petting, and receiving licks from Molly._

_Briella lifted her head away from Molly's face, with a wide eyed expression on her face, "Really Mommy! Can we play dive for the rings, and piggy in the middle like we did last time?"_

"_Sure sweetie," Allison replied. She loved seeing Briella so happy. _

"_But what about Molly?" Briella didn't want to leave her friend out of the fun._

"_Uh-" Allison looked at Kozik unsure as how to answer._

_Her entire life Allison had been a cat person. Molly was the first dog she had really gotten to know, and interacted with. She had no clue if Labradors were good swimmers or not – or if dogs should even be in swimming pools. _

"_Molly can come and play too. She loves swimming!" Kozik happily responded to Briella's question._

"_Come on, Molly!" Briella said grinning ear to ear as she dashed toward the above ground pool. Of course – Molly was only a pace behind._

_Allison stood beside Kozik, she suddenly felt her nerves kick in. What if he had only intended to come over for a few minutes? Did he have other plans? Was he just humoring her – the lonely old lady with the little kid who is always around? _

"_Sure you don't mind spending some time with us? I mean if you had any other plans –" Allison rambled on nervously._

_It took her by surprise when Kozik, wrapped one of his arms around her waist, while softly resting a hand over top of her mouth._

"_Shhh – stop worrying if I like spending time with you and Briella or not," Kozik spoke tenderly, seemingly reading Allison's exact thoughts. He lifted his hand off of her mouth, and slowly snaked it down her cheek, to neck, and all the way down her spine until it sat opposite his other hand, on her hips. _

_Allison felt like every cell in her body was alive with that certain tingling, tantalizing tension a person feels when the person they are attracted to touched them. She lifted her arms up from her sides, and slid up Kozik's abdomen until they rest on either side of his pectorals. _

"_Trust me, I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be," Kozik whispered, his voice shaky with sexual tension. The feeling of her soft, yet toned body wrapped in his arms, and her small slender hands placed on his chest; felt a thousand times better than he ever could have imagined. _

_Allison diverted her eyes away from grey fabric of Kozik's t-shirt, and tilted her head upwards to see that Kozik's, kind, crystal blue eyes were full of passion._

_This was it. _

_After all of these years of ignoring the undeniable chemistry between one another, they were about to throw in the towel and finally admit how they really felt. _

"_Mommy! Mr. Kozik! Aren't you coming? Me and Molly want to go swimming already! Remember the rule – I can't get in the pool without a grown up!" Briella's innocent young voice broke the spell of the moment Allison and Kozik were in._

_They immediately took their hands off of one another and took a step backwards. A shade of soft pink spread across both Allison's and Kozik's cheeks; they both had momentarily forgotten where they were and that there was a child present, who could watch their every move._

"_Coming Ella'," Allison hollered, as she tried to hide a mischievous smirk._

_Xxx_

_After swimming for almost two hours, everybody returned to their perspective houses to shower and change into fresh clothes. _

_When Kozik and Molly returned to Allison's house; Kozik's brought with him an armful of food that he was going to barbeque for them. His intention was to give a treat and give Allison a night off for once._

_Kozik knew from comments Allison made here and there, that when Paul was actually home he never lifted a finger to help out his wife. It completely baffled Kozik that despite the fact Allison worked thirty hours a week, kept an impeccably clean home, and practically raised Briella by herself - Paul did not seem to give two shits about the wonderful woman that was his wife and the beautiful, energetic daughter they had brought into the world._

_Allison however, refuted the notion of her having to sit around and watch Kozik do all the work. It was sweet gesture but, it was Allison's house and he was her guest. _

_After an endless bombardment of persuasive remarks from Allison; Kozik reluctantly gave in and allowed her to help with the prep work. He actually was happy that she helped him in the kitchen because it gave him the opportunity to discretely brush his body against hers and they navigated around the kitchen. _

_This sight of Allison in a bikini earlier that day was still vividly burned into Kozik's mind. As much as he tried not to, he found himself staring at her round, soft D-cups more than once. It also really did not help that Allison's bikini top wasn't lined so, her small, hard, round nipples pressed against the lime green fabric as if they were trying to break free._

_It took almost all of his mental power to think about anything except how much he wanted pull at the strings of Allison's bikini top and bottom, and run his hands over the areas on her body that the cloth concealed. _

_By eight o'clock, they had finished eating supper and had cleaned up all of the dishes. Once they were done the dishes, Allison had tried to get Briella to go to sleep in her bedroom but she refused._

_Briella was drop dead tired by that point. She could not remember if she had ever had so much fun in her life – certainly not while her Dad was around. After having such an exciting day, Briella had decided that Mr. Kozik was a lot more fun to play with than Daddy. She also liked playing with Mr. Kozik better because she noticed he made Mommy smile a lot – Daddy usually made Mommy sad. _

_Allison was in too good of a mood to want to argue with her daughter, so they came to a compromise. Briella could sleep outside on the deck in the lounger, while Mommy and Mr. Kozik sat on the other side of the deck on the patio swing._

_Molly was about to curl up on the swing beside her owner, when Allison remerged from the house with a very tired Briella staggering behind in her pajama's. _

_Molly perked up at the sight of Briella. The dog looked up at Kozik, as if she was asking permission to leave his side. After she had received an affirmative ear scratch and rump pat, Molly got up and curled up on the lounger on the far side of the deck with, Briella. Molly had her exposed front leg draped across Briella's body, so that Briella's head, was nestled into the crook of Molly's furry shoulder. So, Allison brought out Briella's favorite fuzzy purple blanket and tucked the two tired girls in together._

"_Quite a pair those two are," Kozik chuckled softly, referring to Briella and Molly._

"_Like two peas in a pod," Allison replied before she took a swig of her Budweiser. "Supper was good tonight. You really need to teach me how to grill chicken breasts like that. I have never seen Briella eat so much meat in one sitting." _

_Like most six years, Briella was a fussy eater. Lately Allison, felt like every mealtime was some sort of haggling competition between her and Briella. _

_If there was one thing Briella inherited from her Father, it was a strong sense of stubbornness and the ability to talk fast. _

_Kozik felt his pride swell, "Yeah for sure - that'd be cool."_

"_Thank you for today. It has been awhile since Briella has been so happy. I think she has be picking up on the problems Paul and I have been having when he's home. Lately, she has been more on the quiet side. She really likes it when you and Molly come over," Allison paused and looked down at her lap, "I really enjoy the time we have been spending together lately."_

_She wanted to go on and ask if Kozik meant what she thought he meant, when he said that he wouldn't be around her if he didn't want to be – but didn't from feeling a lack of confidence. _

_Kozik picked up on what she going to say. Normally he would be the cocky type who would say that he wanted to be with her, but he too, felt nervous about the subject. _

_Moving forward with Allison wouldn't be like all of the other women he had been interested in. This was completely different because getting involved with one of his brother's old ladies could yield some serious consequences. _

_But in that moment Kozik was not a member of the Sons of Anarchy, and Allison wasn't somebody else's old lady – they were just two individuals who shared a uniquely strong connection._

_Allison was anxious and surprised when Kozik did not reply comment right away. Instead, he grabbed the beer bottle from her grasp and set it to the side on the deck railing, along with his own. He then stood up and held out a hand for her to grasp._

_She looked up at him, completely confused by his actions. What in God's name was he doing?_

"_Dance with me, Allie," Kozik said softly. _

_In the background, Brad Paisley's song, Part II - was quietly emanating from the small stereo on the patio table. _

_Allison accepted Kozik hand, and stood up. He then loosely guided her by the hand to the large space between the table and the steps that lead down to the yard. He placed his free hand in the small of her back, and held their already conjoined hands up to his chest. Allison placed her free hand softly on his well sculpted shoulder._

_There was a definite height difference between the pair; Allison was five feet and seven inches tall while Kozik, stood six feet and one inch tall. To compensate for the height difference, Allison simply rested her head against his chest. When Allison rested her head against him, Kozik, blessed whatever freakishly tall ancestors he had to thank for his height and large build. _

_The way Kozik held Allison in his strong yet, very tender grasp felt completely natural. _

_The warmth of his body heat combined with the smell of cologne and tobacco, seemed to draw Allison into a state of blissful intoxication. She had no idea simply being held by a man could be such a passionate experience. _

_When the song started to fade away, Allison lifted her head off of Kozik's chest and gazed up to his eyes. They were both pleased and little surprised by what they felt as they looked at each other. _

_Romantic movies and books have always gone on and on since the dawn of time, about how when two people are really in love; their partner can gaze into their shimmering eyes and see who they are right down to the epicenter of their soul. _

_Neither Allison nor Kozik had ever bought into such fluffy, fairytale type romance, was complete malarkey to them. They had both been dealt a pretty tough hand in life, and knew that reality was often a harsh son of bitch._

_But as their eyes locked in that very moment, they both knew why the notion of love was so prominent in literature and in film – a euphoric, soul binding connection was real. They didn't have to say it, because they saw it in each other's eyes – in their souls._

_Herman Kozik and Allison Magagnoli loved each other._

_Kozik leaned down, and slowly closed the gap between his and Allison's lips. When their lips finally connected both stood paralyzed for a moment taking in each other's taste. Allison was the first one to move as she circled her arms around his neck. This prompted Kozik to deepen the passion of the kiss, but not too much. Gradually, their kisses intensified to the point where they were gasping for air and had to break away._

_Allison buried her face into the crook of his neck, while Kozik rested his against the side her head. _

_After a few seconds of silence Kozik, pulled Allison even tighter to his body and murmured, "You're not alone anymore Allie. I'm never going to let you slip away." _

_Xxx_

After listening to Part II, twice – Allison found herself approaching the, "Welcome to Charming" sign on the highway.

She let out a dreary sigh, as her mind drifted out of the memory of when her and Kozik, first admitted their feelings of affection to one another.

Looking down at the dashboard, Allison saw that she was running on under a quarter tank of gas. As she drove into Charming's city limits she pulled up to the first gas station she saw. She knew that if she kept on driving, she would have probably forgotten to fill up altogether.

"Back to fucking reality," Allison muttered to herself as she pulled up to the gas bar.

When she hopped out of her truck, she noticed that a Dyna motorcycle with a Sons of Anarchy reaper painted on the gas tank. Her heart seemed to skip a beat at the sight of the bike. The delusional thought that it could be Kozik's popped into her head. After a brief moment of panic, she snapped herself out it.

She was living in Charming , which is the home of the Mother charter of the entire MC. Fearing what the reaper represented to her was an obstacle she really needed to overcome. She would run into club members from time to time – it was simply something she had to learn to live with now that she was on the outside.

At times like this, Allison found herself thinking that in some ways it was easier to live in prison.

When Allison finished filling up and went inside to pay, she found herself pleasantly surprised at seeing that the owner of the Dyna was, Chibs.

Feeling a lot more at ease, Allison walked up to the counter to pay.

"Just the gas for you tonight?" The very bored teenage boy behind the till asked Allison.

"Add on two bottles o' water and a pack of Marlboro Red." A thick Scottish voice bellowed out from behind Allison.

"That'll be eight-three dollars and seventeen cents," the clerk said as he rung in Chibs' items.

Before Allison could refuse Chibs' offer, he had already handed the clerk the cash. After he gave Chibs' his change, the clerk was away to go stock some shelf.

"You really don't have to do that. Here I'll give you some cash," Allison said as she began to rummage in her purse for her wallet.

"No ya' won't," Chibs stated firmly as he placed his hand Allison's shoulder.

"But that's like sixty bucks worth of gas - and I don't hardly know you," Allison refuted looking up from her purse to Chibs' face.

"You just got out from doing some time. Having been there – I know that cash must be a scare commodity. Consider this my treat," Chibs replied.

"I don't know –" Allison began to argue but Chibs cut her off.

"If you really want to pay me back, how bout' you consider using that number I gave ya' last night to call me up for a drink once you are all settled in," Chibs said. He remembered Juice's warning to give Allison her space.

"Uh," Allison was floored by Chibs' comment, "sure I'll do that."

Chibs' face broke out into a wide grin, "Great, I'll be looking forward to your call." He then grabbed his water and smokes off of the counter, and winked at Allison before he left the store, "Good running into you, Allison."

"You too Filip."

After Chibs had left, Allison stood still for a moment trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened.

She must have gone off of the deep end because she actually just agreed to drinks with a club member…

If she would actually follow through on her promise… probably not.

xxx

Kozik sat on his living room sofa, staring at the photo album full of pictures of him and Allison on resting open on the small glass and cast iron, coffee table.

Unlike the previous night, he had a glass full of water and not whiskey in his hand.

Now that he had sobered up and the worst of his hangover had vanished, he was livid at himself for losing control like he had.

Allison was the only person in the world that never held his addictive tendencies, and used them to make him feel like shit. If she knew how he crawled inside of a bottle for a buzz, instead of manning up and owning his guilt for what he did to her – Allison would be completely disgusted with him.

Tomorrow, after he was done with the garage and the small amount of business the club had to deal with – Kozik was going to drive over to Willie's Motel and knock on the door of number sixteen.

He needed to tell Allison that how sorry he was… and that he still loved her with all of his heart.


	5. Chapter 5

Allison was wide awake as she lay in her bed at the motel. She had only managed to get about four hours of sleep, due to her mental unrest.

There was this heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach that something very bad, was going to happen very soon. What did it mean exactly? Allison had no fucking clue. It was driving her absolutely insane though, because she usually she had a pretty good idea of what her intuition was trying to tell her.

Her run in with Chibs at the convenience store was also plaguing her mind. She did not believe that she had actually agreed to have a drink with him – a patched member of the Sons of Anarchy.

She had only been on the outside for one week, and she was pissed off at herself for faltering on her vow to stay as far away from the MC - excluding Juice - as much as humanly possible. The undersexed, irrational part of her mind wanted her to actually go through with her promise and call up the handsome Scotsman.

However, the logical side of her brain told her she should run as far away from the man as possible. Allison had tried a relationship with a Son twice – both times it failed miserably. So why would any sane person want go down that road again?

The couple in the room above her's also contributed to her lack of sleep. They were going at it like rabbits for at least three hours already. They made their bed shake so hard that Allison could feel the walls vibrate in her room. She could even tell every time they changed positions because the woman yelped out like deranged horse. Allison was sure that when the woman reached her climax; her scream was shrill enough to summon some sort of evil, ancient God from the past.

When the couple began to go at it for the fourth time; Allison gave up all hope of ever falling back to sleep.

She rolled from her back onto her side, to see what time it was. When she saw that bulky, wood paneled, digital alarm clock read 4:06am – Allison died a bit inside. She had a long assed day ahead of her, and being as exhausted as all hell certainly did not help her bad mood.

"Might as well get up…" Allison grumbled to herself as she rolled out of bed.

It took her about an hour to do her morning stretches, shower, style her hair, and apply a bit of makeup. After getting ready, she gathered up her several bags full of purchases from the last seven days and loaded up her truck.

As Allison locked the door to that shitty motel for the last time, she felt like she was about to step off the precipice of the current chapter of her life to begin a whole new one. She had no idea what this new chapter would look like, but she was excited none the less.

Despite all of the obstacles that had been thrown in her path, she had come out victorious. Allison was a free, healthy, competent, independent woman. So as far as she was concerned, SAMTAC and Paul's entire fucking family could burn in hell.

Losing her daughter, her lover, her freedom and dignity, was supposed to break Allison to the point of no return. She was expected to just accept that fact that it was her duty to let them sweep her under the rug like an unwanted dust bunny.

Those Italian pricks and Harley riding assholes clearly had no idea about who Allison was, or what she was capable of.

The world was now hers and she was free to manipulate the path of _her own life_.

xxx

It had taken Allison about forty minutes of driving around the fair sized town of Charming, until she finally found Juice's street. She was quite relieved and pleased at what she saw; knowing how minimal a club member's income could be at times

Vermilion Avenue was located in a fairly good neighborhood. It was far from being Beverly Hills, but was by no means a ghetto. Her first clue was that there were no iron bars on windows, or big burly dogs chained up outside.

Brick and wood sided bungalows from the 1970's, lined both sides of the street. All were painted various hews of bright colours. Flower gardens lined the sides of houses, which were compliment by richly green, mowed lawns.

Allison was somewhat wary by what she saw as she parked her truck in the drive way of house number 2219. Juice's house was in the right in the centre of his side of the street. The look of it matched that of the rest of the street.

The wooden siding of his house was painted white, while three moss green bands circled the perimeter of the house, all varying in width. There was a large single door garage attached to the front of the house. To the right of the garage, there was a small sized, screened enclosed, front porch. The wooden bordering and pillars that held up the screening were painted white. On the roof, the light grey shingles the covered it looked pretty tattered - but that was to be expected on such a dated house.

Compared to his neighbor's front yards, Allison observed that Juice's yards was in very sorry shape. The grass stood about three feet tall, and had random bald patches scattered throughout. Clearly nobody had bothered to mow his grass for several months. No flowers or trees of any sort were present within the bounds of Juice's property lines. It was safe to say the Juice's yard was the ugly duckling of the street…

Allison grabbed her purse off of the passenger seat, and got out of her truck. As she walked up the five concrete steps that lead up onto the porch, she hoped that the interior of the house wasn't as ratty looking as the exterior was.

The screen door that entered the porch had no lock on it, so Allison, didn't bother pulling out the house keys from her purse until she was standing inside the porch.

After Allison unlocked the deadbolt on the house door, she held the key in the doorknob lock for a moment. She prayed that the lesson of the importance of keeping a clean home which she had taught Juice so many years ago, had stuck with him.

When Allison twisted the doorknob and stepped inside Juice's home; she felt a wave of repose wash over body.

Directly in front of her was a nice sized living room. There was a black suede couch perched in front of a 45 inch flat screen TV. Black plastic shelves were mounted on either side of the wall behind of the TV, and were stocked full of assorted video games and DVD's. Spread around the room was speakers of various sizes and shapes, all part of a high tech home theater system.

Allison chuckled to herself – Juice sure loved his technology.

Reaper flags and other Anarchy ordainments were scattered throughout the room. The harsh blackness of the décor contrasted highly, with the off white walls and dull brown shag carpet.

The corners of Allison's mouth slowly curved upward into a smirk when she noticed that every inch of the room looked absolutely spotless – Juice was still a clean freak.

Allison walked over to the couch and threw her purse down on it before went to go explore the rest of the house.

The far end of the living room merged into the main hallway. On the opposite side of the hallway was a small kitchen area. The walls in the kitchen were painted the same off white shade that lined the walls in the hallway and kitchen. The countertops were the same dated, moss green colour of linoleum that covered the floor. True to the era, the kitchen sink and oven were also the same shade of green. Allison was thankful to see that at least Juice had bothered to put in a modern era, stainless steel dishwasher and fridge. In the middle of the kitchen was a round wooden table with four matching chairs.

Allison shook her head as she followed the hallway to rest of the house, wondering how Juice could stand living with such an ugly assed kitchen. But then again, Juice had never been one to cook lots either.

The next room Allison explored was on the right hand side of the hallway, which was the bathroom. Allison died a bit inside when she saw that the colour scheme was the same as in the kitchen. The bathtub, sink, and toilet were the same nightmare inspiring green. Once again, the walls were a depressing shade of off white. The floor however, was covered with large, dark brown tiles which had a crème coloured floral design in the center.

Apparently Allison was going to have to adapt to seeing green and brown…

When she continued her tour of the house, the next room Allison ventured into was the spare bedroom where she would be staying. There wasn't much in it except a queen sized mattress on plain, medium stained, oak bedframe. At the far end of the room, there was a large dresser which matched the bedframe. Much to Allison's dismay the walls and carpet were the same as in the living room. She was definitely going to have to do something to spruce up the room once she was settled in.

The two other rooms of the house were the laundry room at the end of the hallway, and Juice's room which was directly across from Allison's room.

There was a closed door on the far left hand side of the hallway which Allison figured led down to some sort of basement. She thought about going down to explore it, but ultimately thought the better of it when her irrational fear of basements kicked in.

After her god awful experience with Paul in their basement back in Tacoma, Allison avoided the things like the plague. A ridiculous phobia was just another thing Allison could tick off on a list of ways Paul, fucked up her life.

When her little exploration had concluded, Allison decided that she would be content with her shelter for the next four months. The house was small and fairly dated, but compared to the concrete 8 by 10 Allison was used to - Juice lived in fucking a mansion.

xxx

Kozik stood in front of the mirror covered closet doors, in his bedroom. He wore nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist. His blonde hair was damp from his shower and stood out in a million different directions.

He scrutinized every little detail of his physique from his tattoo's, to his muscle tone, to his scars, and the even wrinkles around his eyes and across his forehead.

When his eyes fell upon the jagged, ten inch long scar that stretched along the inside of his right thigh – Kozik grimaced at the memory of the god awful day he had acquired the scar.

It was a cool night in 1991 – well as cool as nights can get in the Kuwait desert. He, along with the rest of his Marine Company was tasked with the mission of clearing out a small abandoned village. For the first portion of the village, everything was fine. No enemy resistance anywhere… but then they started to go off.

_Landmines _

Lots and lots of them.

Apparently in the interval between the civilians fleeing and the Marines advancing, the enemy decided the plant mines underneath the houses and streets. Once his comrades started to trip the mines, enemy snipers began to open fire. All around him Kozik, saw his buddies fall to the ground from either the never ending rainfall of bullets. If they didn't get shot, their bodies were blown up to the high heavens.

Despite the destruction, Kozik and his squad continued on with their mission which was to reach the small mosque and secure it. They had almost reached their objective when the Wilson, the man on point, fatally stepped on a mine.

There was no time to even comprehend what was happening. All Kozik remembered was hearing a high pitched whine, the sensation of his body flying backward, and seeing his comrades' body disassemble in a violate fashion. He felt a crippling sting shoot up from his right leg, before the world faded into a definitive blackness.

When he awoke in the field hospital several hours later, he was informed that he was the only surviving member of his squad. If Kozik wouldn't have been the last one in line, he would have been obliterated along with the rest of his buddies. He escaped with a concussion, a broken right tibia, and a fairly large piece of shrapnel embedded into his right thigh. Thankfully, the shrapnel had only slightly nicked his femoral artery so medics and doctors were able to save his life.

His injuries were enough to send him back to the States with an honourable medical discharge. Once Kozik was back in the States, his rehabilitation began – which awoke a menacing demon.

To cope with pain, the doctors had prescribed him a cocktail of painkillers. Within days, he began to enjoy the dull floating sensation the drugs gave him. Months later when he was all healed and his medications had run out, his body still yearned for the high. So, he found out how to get more pills off of the street from one of his discharged Marine buddies.

The more pills he took, the less intense the high felt. This led him to expand his drug horizon. Over a course of two years, he went from popping OxyContin and Vicodins; to eventually shooting up heroin.

By that point, Kozik was living alone in some ghetto apartment, in a bad district in his hometown of San Jose, California. He had given up trying to hold a job, so he began to shoplift to finance his habit. One night he and a few of his other drug buddies were high and got caught trying to shoplift electronics from a department store.

Just as fast as that landmine Kuwait had ruined his life, Kozik found himself stuck with a ten thousand dollar fine and a two year prison sentence.

While he was inside, his older brother Nathan proposed a deal to him. If Kozik would promise to stay clean once he was on the outside – Nathan would pay off his fine.

Nathan was twelve years older than Kozik. He owned and operated a customized motorcycle garage, so he could afford to take a ten thousand dollar dent. He hoped that prison was the wakeup call his little brother needed to get his ass back on the right path.

In some ways prison did give Kozik, the wakeup call he needed. What was the point of life if you stumbled through it, half bright and foggy eyed all the time?

Once Kozik got out, Nathan had a mechanic's position waiting from him at his shop. Kozik however declined, and decided that he needed to go somewhere quieter than San Diego, if he wanted to stay sober.

He knew buddy from his teenage years who was a mechanic in the quaint town of Charming. His buddy told him of an opening at the garage where he worked at, TM Automotive. Kozik took the job, and after that – the rest is history.

Allison was the only person in the world, other than his brother, who knew how and why Kozik became a junkie. It was a very personal subject matter for him that he did not take lightly.

All the club members knew or cared about, were that he was an ex-junkie, but he had his shit under control. None of his club members knew his story – not even Tig, or Happy.

It tore him up having to explain, how he watched all of his buddies die right in front of him. The shrill sound of those landmines detonating still haunted him, and would continue to do so until the day he died.

At the age of twenty, in a foreign land, halfway across the globe; Kozik started down the path that led him to where he was today.

He wasn't proud of the man he had become.

He was a murderer, a liar, and in his opinion – a coward.

Why was his life spared, when so many other good men lost theirs?

One night, cuddling in bed with Allison after some mind blowing sex, she asked about how he got the large scar on his leg.

Kozik surprised himself when the story started to roll off his tongue; like he was describing some ordinary, everyday event. Halfway through the story Kozik, couldn't fight it anymore and broke down bawling. He was just that comfortable around Allison – and trusted her that much – to show his emotions.

Instead of freaking out like he thought she would, Allison simply drew him close and let him cry out years of mental turmoil onto her chest.

After that night Kozik, knew for sure in his heart and soul that Allison, was the sole woman on the planet who was meant for him.

If she was put in the position Kozik was put in, when all of the shit went down with Paul and club; Allison would have saved him and stuck by his side.

He regretted choosing the club over Allison every single day.

However, today was going to be the day that he changed all of that. He was going to look her in the eye, and tell her how ashamed he was of himself. He would show her how tortured his soul was and ask her for forgiveness – even though Kozik knew he _did not_ deserve it.

xxx

"Ya' got a minute Gemma?" Chibs' Scottish accent made her look up from her desk.

"Sure honey, what's up?"

"Well uh," Chibs fiddled nervously with his goatee, knowing how upset Gemma was going to be with what he had to say. "You remember the redhead that came lookin fer, Juicy Boy?"

Gemma dropped the pen she was holding at the mention of that _gash_, "Yeah, what about her?"

"Turns out her and Juicy know go far back together. She just moved ta town, and needed a place to stay so, Juice wanted me to give her the keys ta his place," Chibs replied cringing at the scowl which formed on Gemma's face.

"What!?" Gemma shouted as she stood up, "we don't even know who the hell this bitch is! There is no way in hell I am giving her those keys."

"Eh' calm down, Gemma. I went up ta Stockton two days ago and confirmed it with Juice. He insisted that she stays at his house, and that you and the club leave her be. I gave her the keys the other night and as of this morning, she is moved in," Chibs tried to explain in a calm manner.

"I don't give a shit about what Juice says. She's an outsider, so therefore, it's my job to know who Juice is letting in," Gemma refuted.

"I wouldn't do that if I was ya. Juice was dead serious about leaving Allison alone. He said that she has just got out from serving some time. It's really none of our business Gem," Chibs warned.

Gemma's jaw scraped the floor in shock. An ex-con who Juice had never mentioned before in his life, suddenly decides to set up house while Juice is locked up - and Chibs had the nerve to tell her it was none of _her_ business.

She wanted to tell Chibs, that he and Juice could kiss her ass. She quickly thought the better of it though, and decided that there was more than one way to skin a cat.

"Alright, if that's really what Juice wants," Gemma answered in a calculated, friendly tone.

"Good thinking Gem. No need lighting fires when there is nothing there." Chibs smiled totally buying into her act.

He then turned around and left to go back to whatever he was doing before.

As soon as Chibs was out of earshot, Gemma picked up the phone and dialed a number. After four or five rings, the person on the other end picked up.

"Hello?" Wayne Unser groggily answered.

"You sober enough to do a favour for me Wayne?" Gemma got right down to business.

"Yeah sure, I was just napping. What do you need?"

"Does your niece still work in the administration office for the California Corrections Department?"

"Far as I know. Why do you ask? One of the boys in trouble or something?" Wayne groaned the realization that this favour wasn't going to be an easy one.

"No, we are all good. I need you to ask your niece if she can get copies of all the incarceration records for a woman named, Allison Lowarance," Gemma replied.

"Sure, I'll see what I can do," Wayne paused wondering if he even wanted to know what Gemma was looking for. He decided that since he had to go through the painstaking process of contacting his whiney niece, he might as well ask. "Why do you want to know about this woman?"

"No particular reason just yet… but I think there is going to be trouble down the road."

Xxx

After Allison had unpacked her all of her belongings, she realized that there wasn't a single crumb of food in Juice's house. By that time it was around one in the afternoon, so it was safe to say she was completely starving.

Charming only had two grocery stores. The closest one to Juice's house was on Main Street, in the heart of Charming.

Allison was loading her heaping cart full of groceries onto the checkout conveyer belt when suddenly, the distinctive noise of metal crashing into metal, rung out from the parking lot. Just like everybody else by the tills, Allison craned her neck to the side to see what happened.

She was totally infuriated when she saw that some asshole driving a large SUV ran off of the road, and slammed right into her truck on the side of the road.

"You've got to be shitting me!" Allison shouted as she grabbed her purse out of the cart, pushed her way through the crowd at the entrance of the store, and out to her truck.

"Get the fuck out my way," Allison growled as elbowed her way through the thickening crowd of gawkers on the sidewalk.

When she pushed her way to the front of the crowd, she saw that the driver of SUV was out of out his vehicle and appeared to be fine except for a few cuts on his face and hands.

"What the hell is a matter with you?!" Allison's roared as she approached the man. She saw several heads snap in her direction, but she didn't care, "don't you know how to fucking drive you dimwitted prick?"

The driver was a male who looked to be in his mid to late fifties. He was wearing a pair of black khaki shorts, and a plain white t-shirt which had a large brown stain in the center of it. Allison judged that the man was mostly likely intoxicated based upon, the glassy look in his eyes and the pungent aroma that emanated from him.

"Hey watch your mouth lady!" Some random female bystander snapped, as she helped the driver sit down on the side of the curb.

Allison shot the lady a death glare and refuted, "Fuck you! It is my business, because that's my fucking truck that's half demolished!"

The lady backed off after that; scared away from further confrontation by Allison's flaming temper.

Allison was about to dial 911, when she heard the sirens of emergency vehicles approaching from down the road. Within seconds a police cruiser screeched to a halt by the scene, followed by a fire truck and an ambulance.

A tall black police officer and his Latino partner were the first officials to get out of their vehicles. The Latino right away went to work at shooing the crowd away. "Alright people, if you actually saw the accident occur, please come and talk to me to give a witness statement. Otherwise, go about your regular business."

While his partner took care of witness statements, Deputy Sheriff Cane, approached Allison, "Ma'am I take it you are the owner of the 2005 Dodge Ram?"

Cane made his assumption based upon the furious expression he saw on Allison's face.

"Yes I am," Allison replied curtly.

"Can you tell me what happened Ma'am?" Cane asked in a professional tone.

"That asshole t-boned my truck while I was inside getting groceries!" Allison gestured with her hand to the driver who was now being strapped onto a gurney, "What the hell do you think happened?"

"Please calm down Ma'am. I can assure you that the San Joaquin Sheriff's department will get to the bottom of this, and make sure that justice is delivered accordingly."

Allison rolled her eyes at Cane's spiel. At this point in her life, she had absolutely no patience for the professional posturing of law enforcement.

"Oh I am sure you will. How about I just give you my damn insurance information and registration so you can go write your little report? And then after that, call me a damn tow truck so I can find out if my truck needs to be written off - since you're such a stoic enforcer of justice, and so forth," Allison responded wryly.

Cane knew that there was no point in pointing out Allison's foul attitude, so went and talked to the SUV driver while the fire department ensured that neither of the vehicles were a fire hazard.

Fifteen minutes later, the firemen determined that everything was safe so, Allison was clear to go into the glovebox of her truck to grab the necessary documents. She gave Deputy Cane the information and filled out a police report. When she was done, she handed the clip board to him and he called a tow truck for her.

Some mom and pop tow truck company that the firemen had called came by, and hauled off the driver's SUV before the company Deputy Cane had called, arrived at the scene.

Allison was didn't catch the name of the company that Cane had called, so it was a surprise when Allison saw a beige truck which had TM Automotive printed on the side, roll up to the scene.

Just fucking great.

The last thing she wanted to do with her day was spend hours around SAMCRO, while they figured out if her truck was kaput or not.

Her heart began to palpate when none other than Chibs, jumped out of the passenger side of truck. The morbidly obese man from the second time she stopped by TM, climbed out of the driver's seat.

Chibs furrowed his brow when he saw Allison standing by the red Dodge. He immediately quickened his casual stroll to a jog, inevitably leaving Phil in dust.

"Lord help me…" Allison muttered under her breath when she saw that the Scotsman had zeroed in on her.

She seriously could not seem too avoid that man.

On one hand, it wasn't really a bad thing, seeing as that he was very open and friendly with her the few times they had interacted – not to mention the fact that he was easy on the eyes. It was highly evident that Chibs found her attractive, based on the way he grabbed her waist at TM and the lustful look in his eyes at the convenience store when he asked her out.

If it was any other town, and Chibs was anything other than a Son; Allison probably would not have a problem with Chibs. But the reality was that she was living in Charming, and Chibs was a member of the MC.

It was something that Allison simply could not deal with. She had just been granted a miraculous second chance at life; it would be highly foolish and ignorant of her to throw it away, by getting involved in the fucked up world of the MC, again.

"Christ, you okay Lassie? Are ya hurt? What happened?" Chibs blurted out question after question, once he had reached Allison.

Allison forced a smile on her face, despite the fact that she was still raging inside, "I am fine. Some asshole ran into my truck while I was getting groceries."

Chibs let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in. He was very relieved to hear that Allison wasn't in the vehicle at the time of the accident. The last thing he'd want to have to do is go up to Stockton and tell Juice, that his friend was laid out in a bed at St. Thomas.

Chibs surprised himself at how angry he felt at the thought of somebody hurting Allison.

He didn't know why, but he found himself feeling more attracted to Allison, than he had about any other woman, in a very long time.

She had damn good figure - that's for sure.

But there something in the way that she carried herself and spoke which drew Chibs to her. Allison was very sure of her place in the world, and was very intelligent about her surroundings. It was a unique type of confidence which gave Chibs, the impression that she had been around the block once or twice.

Chibs also picked up the weary frustration hidden behind her hazel eyes. He knew that it meant she was tired, but more importantly; she was lonely. He knew this because he recognized the same look in his eyes, when he looked in the mirror. This connection only made him want to get to know her more.

"I'm very happy ta' hear that yer not hurt," Chibs said tenderly, "I am however, sad ta say that your truck is not lookin' too good."

Allison sighed, "I was afraid you were going to say that. You think it's a write off?"

Chibs took a moment to scrutinize the damage before he spoke, "It looks touch and go. I won't know fer sure until we get it back to TM."

A dread filled groan escaped Allison's lips. So this was life on the outside…

xxx

Allison never thought she would be so thankful to be pulling into the SAMCRO compound. Sure Filthy Phil was a nice guy, but the truck cab was way too small for the two of them and Chibs.

The drive to TM from Main Street was short, so awkward small talk had not been issue, much to Allison's relief.

Once Phil had parked the truck in front of an empty bay, all three people hastily exited the truck.

Phil went to the back of the truck, and began to help another mechanic unhook the Allison's Dodge from the tow truck.

Meanwhile Chibs, stood off to the side and talked to Allison, "it should take me no more than forty-five minutes until I have a damage estimate worked out fer ya'."

"Alright," Allison nodded. She was happy that Chibs could get to her truck right away.

Chibs put a hand on the small of Allison's back and began to lead her towards the office, "Gemma's got some paperwork fer ya' ta fill out."

The mention of Gemma's name made Allison stop dead in her tracks. She couldn't help but the blurt out, "Did you tell her that I moved into Juice's place, yet?"

At that given moment, she really was not in the state of mind to deal with bitch like Gemma.

"Aye, this morning actually," Chibs answered. He decided that it would be best to leave out the details of Gemma's tantrum.

"Good," Allison let out a relived huff.

With that reassurance, Allison and Chibs continued their stroll to the office.

"We need some MVA forms Gem," Chibs said as he and Allison stepped into the office.

Gemma's mouth dropped slightly when she saw Allison, standing beside Chibs. She raised an eyebrow when she noticed Chibs' hand on Allison's waist.

"Sure honey," Gemma replied while sizing Allison with her eyes.

"Right, I'll go get to work and leave you two gals too it." Chibs replied while cringing as he turned around and left. He sensed the tension in between the two women, and hoped that he wouldn't suddenly hear a shouting match while he was in the garage.

"So you got in an accident then sweetie?" Gemma asked dryly as she began to flip through her filing cabinet for the forms.

"Truck got hit on the side of the road while I was in a store," Allison stated coldly.

"Hm," Gemma grunted as she plucked out a stack of papers, and closed the filing cabinet drawer. She attached them to a clip board and handed it to Allison, along with a pen.

Allison sneered at Gemma, unimpressed by the aggressive way she showed the objects towards her. Allison then went and sat down on the plaid couch, threw her purse to the side, and began to scribble down her information.

Gemma went to her spot behind her desk, and pretended to go back to her paperwork, "Chibs tells me that you are staying in Juice's house while he's inside." Gemma commented in a very passive aggressive tone.

"That's right," Allison replied not bothering to divert her eyes from the paper. She fought the urge to roll her eyes, knowing where this conversation was going to lead.

"He said that apparently you and Juice go way back," Gemma added, wanting to prompt Allison to share more.

"Yes we do."

Gemma sighed in an irritated fashion and threw her pen down, "You an ex of his honey? Because if you're only here to clean him out; we have got ourselves real a problem here."

"I am not," Allison replied in a shrewd tone. She decided to continue on further, knowing that bitches like Gemma, are never satisfied until they think that have _the truth_, "We grew up in Queens together. He dated my little sister for several years."

"Uh huh," Gemma decided to up the ante, "Chibs also mentioned that you just got out of prison."

Allison stopped writing and threw the clipboard to the side. Did this bitch strap Chibs down into a chair and interrogate him, or something?

Gemma prodding about her prison time is where she drew the line.

"Yeah I did," Allison spoke in a very assertive voice, "and before you ask what my sentence was - _don't_. I get that you being the Queen Bee around here, makes you feel entitled to know every little thing, about every member's personal life - but my life and my relationship with Juice, is none of your _damn_ business. I ain't some half brained whore of a croweater, or a damsel in distress looking for protection from the club. I don't have the time or the patience, for your old lady, meddling bullshit. Have Chibs call me on my cell when he is finished." Having said her piece, Allison then grabbed her purse and charged out of the office.

Normally Gemma would have gotten in Allison's face, and punched her lights out for her addressing her in such a vitriolic fashion; but instead she just sat there and watched Allison walk away.

Allison seemed to know what she was talking in regards to the club, a bit too much, for just being some outside broad off of the street. There was more to that gash then Juice let on to Chibs…

Hopefully Unser would pull through and get her Allison's criminal history soon. Until he did - it going to drive Gemma batty.

Xxx

Kozik sat on a stool in front of the bar in the clubhouse, staring off into nothing. He was trying to decide whether or not; his anxious induced stomach ache could handle the grilled cheese sandwich that was sitting in front of him.

It was only 2pm, but felt as if the day had stretched on for and eon. Nothing seemed to be able to get his mind off of what he had to do, and who he had to face, at the end of his day.

Scenarios of how Allison would react to him kept playing though his head, like a never ending playlist. Would she cry, or scream in his face? Would she actually listen to what he had to say, or slam the door in his face? Would she punch him out, or hug him?

"You gonna eat than son?" Piney's gruff voice from the stool beside him brought Kozik, out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, here you can have it," Kozik mumbled in an absent minded tone as he shoved the plate to the right.

Piney let out a sigh and shoved the plate to the side, "I don't want you damn food. Tequila is all I need for my lunch." Piney decided to switch topics, "what's been going on with you this past week? First you drown yourself in a bottle for two days and neglect club business. Then you walk around here with your brains at half mass all day, snapping at everybody like a bulldog."

Kozik hung his head. Here it was - the inevitable Piney lecture Opie had promised he'd receive.

"It's just some personal stuff," Kozik answered reluctantly.

"I may be old, but I'm not stupid," Piney asserted. "What's the name of piece of pussy that's got you so twisted up inside?"

Kozik curled his lip upward in disgusted at the notion of Allison, just being a piece of pussy. He knew from Piney tone though, that the older man was trying to be sincere.

"Allison."

"Uh huh. You hurt her bad, but you still love her," Piney stated.

Piney's all too correct analysis made Kozik, look up at him in shock. How the hell did he know that? Opie better not have told his Pop about what they talked about at his house. He confided in Opie, understanding that Opie would keep the knowledge of Allison, to himself.

Piney let out a deep old man chuckle at the deer in headlights expression plastered across the blonde's face.

"Relax kid. I've been there and done that." Piney referred to his severed marriage with Mary.

The older Piney got, the more he found himself reflecting on the mistakes he had made with Mary. The club, his alcohol problem, his cheating and his inability to express his love outwardly; had all caused his marriage to tank. The knowledge that his poor character and lifestyle choices had drove away the love of his life was the biggest regret he carried around with him.

"I didn't think I'd ever see her again… then I found out that she's in town…" Kozik shared tentatively.

"You need to find her and just tell her how you feel. It's the only way to get past this funk you're in," Piney replied. He thought back to about how good it felt when he told Mary how he really felt, before he tried to shoot Clay several months ago. "Even if it is too late, you can find peace in knowing that you told her how you really feel. At the end of the kid, the only thing that matters in this world is your loved ones. The club, your job, you motorcycle; all of that is minuscule compared to the importance of the love of a woman. Before you know it, you'll be fat, old, and half dead like me."

Kozik felt like somebody sucker punched him in the gut when he realized that his fears were confirmed. He committed the worst sin a mortal man could, by betraying the one woman who would have stuck by him no matter what…

However, Kozik feel a bit more confident about confronting Allison. Sure, Piney was a mean old drunk; but Kozik had caught on a long time ago that he was very wise, despite his faults.

"Thanks old man," Kozik managed to muster up a weak smile, "I better get back to work."

Kozik then grabbed his beer and walked away from the bar to the direction of the door.

When he was sure Kozik was out of earshot, Piney shook his and chuckled, "Oh the joys of love."

Xxx

Allison was seeing red as she made her way toward the gate. She knew that she might have said a bit too much back there, but she did not care at the moment. All she could think about was finding a bar nearby where she could indulge in a basket of spicy chicken wings, while she downed a very stiff Jack and Coke.

When Allison walked past the clubhouse, she was busy digging in her purse looking for her cellphone. She really needed to call Rachel and vent to her about her shit ass day.

All of a sudden she felt her body collide with a much larger one, as a cold liquid splashed onto her abdomen.

Allison untangled herself from the body, as she began to yell, "Hey watch where the hell-" When she looked up to see who the moron was who ran into her - she froze.

Time seemed to stand still, when Kozik's and Allison's eyes locked.

Allison thought that she had to be dreaming. Or maybe she hit her head and as hallucinating…

It wasn't really him.

She tried to deny the vison before her; but then it hit her. Her intuition last night and that morning wasn't about her truck getting hit… it was about her running into Herman Kozik.

Allison's heart began to beat wildly, as every muscle in her body began to tremble from a mixture of sheer shock and sorrow. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

As Kozik's eyes were locked together with Allison's; he felt all the same emotions that she was. But the look of defeat and vulnerability in Allison's hazel eyes, made him feel like the most worthless piece of shit on the planet.

Allison was the strongest, most level headed, intelligent individual he had ever meant. Her resilience in not allowing the bad circumstances in her life, dictate her path; was one of the qualities he had admired about her the most.

Yet here she was, standing before him trembling like newborn puppy. The assumption that his actions had broken such a strong woman was terrifying – but seeing it firsthand was absolutely crippling.

Acting on instinct Kozik, reached out and placed a hand on her right shoulder, "Allie, this is not how planned for this to happen."

Kozik's touch combined with the sound of his voice, brought Allison out of her shock. Without giving it a second thought, she grabbed the beer bottle that he held in his right hand and smashed it across his face.

The sound of the glass shattering, and Kozik's body hitting the concrete covered earth was the most deafening noise Allison had ever heard.

"You stay away from me you son of bitch!" Allison shrieked at Kozik who was sprawled on the ground. Before she sprinted away from the scene and out of the compound, she briefly glanced down at Kozik. What she saw the last thing she had ever expected too see in his crystal blue eyes - deep seated remorse.


	6. Chapter 6

Kozik felt the harsh sting of glass shards at the right hand corner of his forehead, which stemmed downward in a crescent shaped pattern to the bottom of his jaw. He also picked up a few loose shards in his lower right arm when he fell down. A couple of stray, crimson drops of blood began to trickle down his forehead as he watched Allison run out of the compound, and turn left on the sidewalk.

His brain was screaming at him to pick his ass up off of the pavement and chase after her. So, Kozik propped both of his elbows behind him, and he tried to force his disorientated body to stand up.

His body however, had a very different idea because he fell back down onto his ass - which consequentially was right on top of the pile glass.

"_Holy_ _motherfucking Christ!"_ Kozik screeched like an alley cat from the shock of the intense pain which radiated from his ass cheeks. He immediately rolled off of the glass and onto his left side.

He closed his eyes for a moment to try and focus on steadying his laboured breathing. This stinging pain he felt in the various spots of his body, combined with shock and shame he felt about how Allison had reacted to him - made him feel sick to his stomach.

There wasn't anything in the world he wanted more at that moment, than to shoot his veins full of heroin. It would take away all of the unadulterated pain and shame that was wreaking havoc on his body and mind.

The heroin would free him from the concrete blocks attached to his feet, allowing him fly up into the stratosphere and escape into an awesome euphoria. The only substantial feeling of consequence would be the warm, tingling sensation pulsating throughout his nervous system.

Kozik stopped his train of thought when remembered that heroin can only cause more pain – not solve it.

He groaned as he felt the acidic content of his stomach quickly work its way up his esophagus. Ignoring the pain, he repositioned himself onto all fours knowing that if he remained on his side; he could choke on his own vomit. That was definitely not the way he wanted to be remembered.

Herman Kozik – ex-Marine, member of the Sons of Anarchy, passed away from choking on vomit after he got clocked in the head with a beer bottle by a woman… Not exactly a flattering eulogy.

His body lurched violently as he regurgitated what little food and liquid that held in his stomach. After the last heave, there was no more fight left in his body, and he collapsed face down into his own puke.

Kozik suddenly felt two strong arms wrap underneath his shoulders, and flip him onto his left side so that he was in the recovery position.

A gruff voice which belonged to none other than Piney, spoke up, "I take it that's Allison."

Kozik let out a strangulated sigh. This was without a doubt the longest day of his life...

"What the hell happened? What was all of that screaming about?" Gemma shouted as she ran out of her office towards the spot where Piney was standing.

When she reached the scene, her eyes widened at the sight of the injured blonde. Scrunching her nose in revulsion at the metallic smell of Kozik's puke, she demanded, "That mouthy gash is responsible for this, isn't she?"

"Fuck, just help me up Gemma," Kozik moaned, unsure as to whether the painful throbbing was worse in his ass, arm, or his head.

Gemma growled in frustration at Kozik dodging her question. None the less, she took her cue alongside Piney and helped the blonde to stand up.

The only reason Kozik managed to stay somewhat balanced on his feet was because Gemma and Piney, were supporting him underneath either of his shoulders.

"We need to get him to the emergency room," Gemma stated, ignoring the fact that a small crowd of gawkers were gathering around them.

"Eh' what the hell is happened?" Chibs' voice boomed out as he jogged up to the scene. Seeing that the Gemma was struggling to hold up the 190 pound blonde up, he quickly took over for Gemma.

"That crazy redheaded bitch smashed a beer bottle across Kozik's skull! What the fuck else do you think happened?" Gemma snapped back as she switched off with Chibs.

"Allison did that?" Chibs gaped, not entirely believing that Allison was capable of such violence.

Gemma crossed her arms and gasped in furious astonishment, "Are you fucking deaf? That's what I just fucking said!"

"Argue about this later. We've got to get him to emergency now, in case he has a concussion or some glass fragments in his eyes." Piney exclaimed in a highly annoyed tone.

"No," Kozik cut frantically, "I don't need to go to the hospital. They'll just ask what happened and I don't want Allie getting into any trouble."

Gemma's jaw dropped at the notion. That bitch was responsible for the glass sticking out of his body in multiple areas, like some perverse version of bird feathers; and he didn't want to get her in trouble.

Gemma wanted to refute Kozik's wishes, however - she along with Piney and Chibs knew that by the conviction in Kozik's tone he was dead serious.

"Shit, I'll call Tara to get her ass over here," Gemma huffed before she walked briskly away toward her office.

"Come on, Kozy. We're gonna get ya' patched up as good as new," Chibs said as he and Piney began to lead Kozik into the clubhouse.

Chibs fought back the urge to spew out all of the questions that were on the tip his tongue.

How did Kozik know Allison? Why the hell did she crack a bottle across his skull? Did he try to physically hurt her, and that was just her way of protecting herself?

Chibs really hoped that the last scenario wasn't the case, if so – he would crack more than just a beer bottle across his blonde's head…

Judging by how adamant Kozik about not getting Allison in trouble, Chibs knew he wasn't going to get any of these answers from him, anytime soon.

Chibs would have to go to the source of the problem – Allison.

Xxx

Allison ran for about five blocks, until she could no longer see the SAMCRO compound behind her when she glanced over her shoulder.

When she stopped running, Allison took a few moments to catch her breath. She leaned her back against some a random brick building and closed her eyes.

Her heart was beating rapidly, as sweat oozed out of her forehead and underarms. It took Allison a few moments to comprehend that her cheeks were not damp from perspiration, but from tears.

As she tried to compose herself, Allison felt unrest in her stomach. It wasn't from physical overexertion, but from a powerful feeling of shame.

For the last seven years she had cursed the existence of Herman Kozik.

After she went inside, Allison was reminded of some sort of ugly, deleterious, monster every time Kozik popped into her mind. The thought of Kozik's promises about how he would protect her from Paul and his family when it came time to do so, made her feel completely worthless.

Like really, how could she be so gullible to fall his lies?

If he had really loved her, he wouldn't have skipped giving his testimony about how Paul manipulated her through threatening Briella. Kozik's knowledge about what really happened the night of Allison's car accident would have ensured that the first degree murder charge would have been dropped.

Despite Allison's black feelings about Kozik - she felt a revitalizing pang in her heart when she looked into Kozik's eyes back at TM. For a brief moment, it was as if they none of the horrible shit had gone down, and they were still head over heels in love.

Allison's eyelids quickly flung open. Was she high on crack or something?

There was no chance in hell she would ever allow herself to fall Herman Kozik, ever again.

When she began to feel a bit better, Allison stood up straight and readjusted the purse strap on her shoulder. She walked a few steps towards the curb of the sidewalk, and looked up to see what kind of business it was she had been leaning against.

An amused huff escaped her lips when she saw that plain green and black lettered tin sign read,

"_Sam's Liquor Store"_

"What a noble idea," Allison remarked to herself.

xxx

Allison sat on the couch in Juice's living room, staring at the T.V. screen, not paying any attention to whatever game show as on the screen.

In one hand she held strong Jack and coke. In the other, she held her cellphone.

As much as she wanted to call up Rachel to tell her about her day from hell; Allison just couldn't find it in her to dial her number.

She knew that Rachel would flip her lid when she heard that Kozik was no longer SAMTAC, and was now patched as a member of SAMCRO.

Growing up, Rachel had witnessed her biological Father as well as her two step-Fathers; abuse her Mother in every way imaginable. Instead of turning to substance abuse like most children in those situations do, Rachel used her anger and fear to motivate her to become a criminal defense lawyer.

She specialized in representing women who've been indicted due to domestic violence. So naturally when Allison's case was plopped onto her desk, she snatched it up in a heartbeat.

For her entire journey, Rachel was there to support Allison in any way possible. She witnessed just how much Kozik's betrayal had hurt Allison. It was probably the hardest moment of her career when she sat across from Allison, and told her that Kozik did not show up to give his testimony. Allison immediately broke out in heart wrenching sobs, making it all the more harder to explain that the D.A. would push for first degree murder and child endangerment charges.

Allison lost completely after that. She began to band her fists into the stainless steel picnic table, and shriek about how much she wanted to kill Kozik with her bare hands.

Rachel sat there in complete horror as she watched the guards rush up to Allison in full riot gear – and strap her into a chair that half way resembled a straitjacket. It was at that point she vowed in her power as Allison's attorney to ensure that Allison would receive justice.

The week before Kozik was to testify in court, Rachel had driven up to Tacoma to inform him that his testimony was the only real chance that Allison had at gaining her freedom. Otherwise, Allison was looking at life without parole - or even the death penalty.

He had sworn up and down, that he would be show up and share his knowledge. When he did not show up Rachel felt like driving up to Tacoma and putting a bullet through the blonde's head.

Rachel despised Kozik so much after that day; she could not even begin to fathom how much Allison loathed him.

Allison eventually decided against calling Rachel, and walked into the kitchen and set it down on the table.

Up until this day, Allison figured she would be okay living in Charming. Sure she had anxieties but she would deal with them, just like she had done her entire life.

However, knowing that she would be living in the same town - let alone the same state as Kozik - had completely crippled confidence she had about starting her new life.

The look in Kozik's eyes right before she ran away, was shocked her down to the core. It made her question in the back of her mind that if Kozik not testifying was actually as malicious in intent as she had brought herself to believe.

When you really sit down and analyze the issue, it wasn't just Allison's and Kozik's future at stakes. There was also the fate of the MC, and the Italian Mafia in California and in Chicago to consider.

Before her thoughts on the new notion could go any further, a sharp series of knocks rang out from the front door. Not wanting to dealing with whomever it was, Allison simply decided to ignore them.

After three more knocks, the person outside spoke up, "open up this door right now!"

Allison cringed at the sound of Gemma's voice. She closed her eyes and hung her head for a moment before setting her drink down onto the coffee table, and slowly walked towards the door.

After she had unlocked the door and aggressively flung it open, she asserted "what happened between Kozik and I, is none of your concern - just like the rest of my life. You are not going to get any answer out of me, and I highly doubt Manny will tell you anything either. Now get the fuck off of this property."

Gemma could not believe the attitude of this ungrateful bitch. First she shows up out of the blue, claiming to be some long lost companion of Juice. Then she has Chibs looking at her like she is the best thing to happen since sliced bread. Finally she nearly kills another club member for no apparent reason.

Gemma really needed to put Allison in her place. She wanted to spew insult after insult out at Allison like machine gun fire, but found herself tongue-tied. She was too distracted by the ungodly appearance of the lower half of Allison's body.

Without realizing it, Allison had opened the door wearing only a black ribbed tank top, and a pair of purple denim shorts.

Starting about two inches above her ankles, Allison's skin was riddled in scars. The scars varied in size, shape and length. In coordinating patches, there were also sections of skin that were discoloured and shrivelled from being burnt. Just above the knee, on the backside Allison's left leg; there was a substantial chunk of tissue missing where her vastus medialis muscle should be.

"Holy Fuck! You are one gimped up bitch," Gemma blurted out. The filter in her brain was not working, as per usual.

Allison felt like her stomach dropped down into her feet. Her eyes grew wide, and her cheeks grew a sizzling shade of crimson. Acting on instinct, Allison swiftly slammed the door shut in Gemma's face.

She stood paralyzed in mortification behind the closed door. She stayed still until she heard Gemma footsteps leave the porch and heard her SUV pull out of the driveway.

After a few seconds of silence, Allison let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in. Out of nowhere, she went from feeling nothing but emotional and alcohol induced numbness, to a full on panic attack.

She turned around so that her back was resting against the door. Her legs began to tremble and without warning, gave out beneath her.

For the second time that day, tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes. Allison could only imagine how Gemma, was going to run her mouth off about Allison's appearance. At that given moment, Allison was sure that Gemma was in Kozik's face, asking why the hell "_the psycho gash was so gimped up_".

It infuriated Allison to know that Gemma was most likely going to use her biggest insecurity to get "_the truth". _

If Kozik did give Gemma the satisfaction of an answer, hopefully he would just stick to their story that Allison got hurt in a car crash. He knew just as well as Allison did, that the real truth would set off a chain of events and reopen a very ugly can of worms.

Xxx

"Hey Lieutenant?" Deputy Cane said as he knocked on the doorframe to Sheriff Roosevelt's office, "I think I got something you might want to see. It's about that MVA on Main Street this afternoon."

Roosevelt looked up from his paperwork, "what's up?"

"Well the owner of the Dodge that got t-boned, Allison Lowrance, put on her accident repot that her address is 2219 Vermilion Avenue. Now I recognized that address from somewhere, so I looked it up. The house belongs to a local Sons of Anarchy member, Juan Carlos Ortiz," Cane replied stepped into the office.

"Ortiz is Stockton. Probably just one of his squeezes looking after his pad until his time is up," Roosevelt responded a bit irked. He didn't see why Cane was bothering to tell him this information.

"Yeah that's what I thought too, but then Ms. Lowrance's face looked really familiar to me. As you know before I came here, I was working for the Susanville Police Department, up in Lassen County. My third day on the job after graduating the academy my training officer and I, responded to our first homicide. A physical domestic dispute got out of hand and the wife ended up killing the husband by smashing in his face with a small frying pan. The dude's face was so caved in – matching his fingerprints with what we had in the system was the only way the coroner's office could identify him. Anyways, when Martinez and I were driving back to the station after responding to the MVA, it hit me – Ms. Lowrance was the wife. I just looked her up in the data base and found that I was right. All of her charges got appealed eight days ago, and now the only charge on her record of consequence will be one count of imperfect self defense. I called up the CDC, and by nine o'clock tomorrow morning her record will be up to date. She was released from Chowchilla seven days ago."

"Okay so what's the problem? Why should this woman be on our radar? What does her living at Ortiz place have to do with anything?" Roosevelt asked. "You know that profiling for past offenses won't get us brownie points with the D.A."

"I remember most of the details from that case… it was pretty brutal. Ms. Lowrance had a daughter with her late ex-husband, Paul Maganoli. At the time of the attack, Paul and Allison were newly separated. According to the several testimonies Ms. Lowrance gave throughout the years; the physical violence began because Paul broke into her home and began to beat on his daughter – the situation escalated rapidly from there. Paul Maganoli was a member of the Tacoma charter of the Sons of Anarchy."

"Uh huh," Roosevelt sighed, finally understanding why Cane was bending his ear.

Gangs by nature are highly misogynistic. Old ladies are usually safe as long as they do not overstep the boundaries set out by their partner. The members usually don't give a rat's ass about the other member's old ladies, unless the old ladies cause some sort of trouble that interferes with the gang business.

Allison murdering her husband was on the taboo end of the old lady spectrum of the, _"not to do"_ list. Roosevelt knew that Allison was lucky that she wasn't murdered for retaliation by the MC.

"Did get back to you with the MVA Perp's toxicology report, yet?"

"Yes sir," Cane answered as he handed Roosevelt a small bundle of papers, "the Perp, Mr. Frank Edwardson, was way over the legal blood alcohol limit at the time of the accident."

"Alright, I'll think I'll go personally update Ms. Lowrance about the situation."

"Yes sir," Cane replied smiling. He knew that Roosevelt had finally caught on to why he just lectured him about a homicide that happened several years ago.

If Allison would willingly affiliate herself with a patched member of the MC again - there was a good chance she hadn't learned her lesson the first time around.

Roosevelt knew from his experience with gangs that Old ladies _usually, _do not pose a threat. However, if they were felons, it was a good idea to keep an eye on them. In Allison's case; his watchful eye would be for her own safety…

Xxx

Allison was slumped up against the front door with her knees curled up to her chest, sobbing profusely. When Sheriff Roosevelt knocked on the door, Allison was very reluctant to answer it. She was still very shaken up by her encounter with Gemma.

"Fuck off whoever you are!" Allison managed to holler out.

On the opposite side of the door, Roosevelt could hear Allison crying. Alarmed by the shaky tone of her voice he spoke up, "Ma'am its Sheriff Roosevelt, with the San Joaquin Sheriff Department – are you alright in there? I have an update for you about the MVA."

Allison suddenly felt even more embarrassed. She had assumed that it was some member of SAMCRO on the porch, ready to yell at her for nearly killing one of their brothers and for disrespecting their Queen. er FrFr

She really wouldn't have cared if she had told some Uni to fuck off, but a telling a Sheriff to fuck off was a whole other scenario. Allison hated law enforcement for obvious reasons, but higher ups like Roosevelt required a bit more tact. Otherwise, a person might find themselves thrown into a County cell overnight, if they aren't careful.

"Uh just a second," Allison replied as she stood up. She quickly ran into the spare bedroom and ripped apart her shopping bags until she found the fuzzy floor length, bright purple bathrobe she had purchased at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

When she opened the door, she hated to see the scrutinizing looked on Roosevelt's face. Allison had spent enough time dancing around the law to know that a Lieutenant wouldn't make a house call for a menial MVA; unless there was another motive behind it

"What do you want Sheriff?" Allison inquired in a very unwelcoming tone.

"I am just here to inform you that Mr. Edwardson, the man who was driving the SUV which hit your car today; was severely over the legal blood alcohol limit at the time of the accident. He is being held for observation over night at the hospital, so I am here to give you his insurance information in his stead," Roosevelt addressed while silently wondered whether or not, the time was right to prod about her relationship with Juice.

Allison snatched the papers out of Roosevelt's hand and in a hasty fashion replied, "Yeah thanks. I am still having my car assessed, so I don't know if it's a write off yet or not."

"Alright, well you have a good night Ms. Lowrance. I you need anything don't hesitate to call the department," Roosevelt responded with a nod, before he turned around, walked down the porch steps, and got back into his cruiser.

From Allison's taut expression and her calculated speech; Roosevelt concluded that it defiantly was not a good time to bring up the topic of the MC.

Besides, all he could really do was hope that no trouble erupted between SAMCRO and Allison.

Xxx

Tara was highly irritated when Gemma called her at the hospital, yelling at her to come with her kit to the clubhouse ASAP, and hung up without any further explanation.

When she arrived at the clubhouse, Gemma quickly ushered her into Chapel. Gemma immediately left Tara alone with Chibs, muttering something about, "setting a dumb bitch straight".

She wasn't really surprised to see that it was Kozik, who was lying on his stomach waiting for her help. Since Kozik had arrived in Charming several months ago, Tara had noticed that the blonde biker had a tendency to get roughed up.

She didn't dare ask Chibs or Kozik, about what had happened. It was safe to say that neither of the men was themselves.

Chibs had a baffled, puppy-dog expression plastered across his face. On top of that, he was really distracted and needed a lot of guidance - which was completely unlike the Scotsman. Usually, he fully invested himself into aiding Tara anytime she was treating somebody.

The second Tara announced that she was finished, Chibs bolted out of the chapel like there was a vicious dog chasing him or something.

Kozik had a thousand yard stare in his eyes the entire time Tara treated him. He barely spoke a word to Tara. The only time he did, was when he was pulling up his pants and mumbled, "Thanks Doc."

Tara figured that Kozik was just really embarrassed by the whole ordeal, so she skipped her usual spiel about how he really should have gone to the emergency room. However, she did lecture him on signs of infection he should watch out for, and how often to change his dressing. She was pretty sure that he didn't hear a word she said, but quickly scribbled out a prescription for some antibiotics none the less.

Kozik grabbed the prescription and proceeded to limp out of the Chapel. He passed through the main lounging area and down the hallway until he reached his dorm room, feeling several eyes on him.

He knew that they all wanted an explanation, but he could not have cared less. Just like back in Tacoma – his and Allison's relationship was nobody's business but their own.

Xxx

"Hey I'm all done with Kozik," Tara announced her presence as she stepped into Gemma's office. "Do you want to tell me what that was all about? He was pretty withdrawn into himself, and Chibs seemed pretty freaked out."

Tara knew Gemma well enough that the frown on her face meant that shit was going down, and Gemma could do nothing to control it.

"Gimpy must have her claws dugs further into Chibs than I thought," Gemma murmured to herself.

"Who?" Tara proclaimed with raised eyebrows.

Gemma was still very astonished by the deformity of Allison's legs. She wasn't going to forget about it anytime soon – so, Gimpy seemed like an appropriate nickname for Allison.

Gemma sighed realizing that Tara knew nothing about the whole Allison scenario, "This gash named Allison is apparently an old friend of Juice's. Anyways, she just got out of the big house and convinced Chibs to give her the keys to Juice's place. She's going to be living there until Juice gets out. Meanwhile, she apparently likes to lead on lonely Scotsmen, and abuse middle aged surfer dudes with Coors Light bottles."

"Uh huh," Tara really didn't know what to say about the mystery woman, "well Kozik is going to be okay. He was really fortunate that he didn't get any glass in his eyes."

"That's good," Gemma stated before changing subjects, "I went to Juice's place after you got here. I was going to talk some sense into Gimpy, but she just slammed the door in my face. This bitch seriously needs a reality check."

Gemma purposely left of the detail of Allison's legs. When the time was right, Gemma bring it as a curveball the next time her and Allison got into it.

"Well let me know if I can help out. This chick must really have a screw loose to attack somebody the way she did to Kozik," Tara said while shaking her head.

"Thank I think I'm going to need all the help I can get with this one," Gemma replied.

Life as an Old Lady rarely involved a dull moment, that's for sure.

Xxx

The false sense of peace which Allison had gotten from her fifth of Jack Daniels was completely shattered after Roosevelt's visit.

They must have run her name through the system, and seen her un-modified record. It was the only real explanation as to why the Sheriff bothered to make a house call which happened to be _way_ below his pay grade.

Rachel had said it could take the CDC up to two weeks, to wipe everything clean.

Allison walked away from the front door and into the kitchen. She stared her cellphone sitting in the center of kitchen table, like it was some ominous centerpiece.

The small screen on the front of her plain silver flip phone had a two missed calls, one voicemail, and four text messages.

Allison wanted to see who the hell was blowing up her phone but after a moment of thought; she ultimately decided against it. It was probably Chibs about her truck, or that crazy bitch Gemma, wanting to get her to account for previous actions.

She had no idea of what she was going to do about the entire situation – it felt like she had been pulled into a biker style version of the _Twilight Zone._

She knew that the responsible thing would be to sit down, and try to figure how to find the answers to all of the questions running through her mind. Also she should formulate a plan about how she was going to deal with the Kozik issue - but Allison was tired of thinking.

Since Allison had given birth to Briella; it seemed as if her life revolved around scheming and executing plans to achieve some sort of happy ending. The happy ending never worked out, and she was simply sick and tired of it.

"Fuck it," Allison said to herself as picked up the bottle of whiskey on the table.

She walked over towards the fridge and pulled out bottle of coke. She was rummaging through the cupboards looking for a really large tumbler, when she heard the sound of a motorcycle pulling into the driveway.

"Motherless, fucking cunts!" Allison roared before she turned around, and picked up the whiskey off of the table.

She took three large swigs from the bottle and she walked towards the door.

Did this house have a ginormous sign outside that read _Please Disturb,_ or something? Just because she was staying at a club member's house, doesn't mean that the other members and associates could just stop by anytime they felt like it.

The next time she went up to Stockton, she was going to have one hell of a strong word with Juice about his nosy comrades.

Allison growled from the burn of the whiskey, before she placed her hand on the gold doorknob and flung open the door.

She was prepared to launch a sailor style bombardment of curses at whoever dared to bother her, but stopped when she saw who it was.

Chibs stood in front of her, looking a little bit like a lost dog. His shoulders weren't pushed up and out, in the masculine, confident, way they were the other times Allison had seen him. Instead, his posture was slightly stooped, which hinted towards a lack of confidence.

His small framed sunglasses which sat at the tip of his nose highlighted his dark brown eyes. His eyes reflected an expression of worry.

Allison could help but to drool a bit, as she let her eyes wander up and down Chibs' body. His dark wash jeans nicely accentuated his well sculpted behind. She also appreciated the worn looking, brown leather jacket which he wore underneath his kutte – she was a sucker for a man in leather.

"I uh –" Chibs spoke up, but got interrupted when Allison snapped out of her little lustful fog.

"What the hell do you want? Because if you are here to lecture me on how I redecorated that blonde's0 piece of shit face today – don't. If you think what I did to him was bad, you have no idea what I can do with this!" Allison exclaimed, referring to the bottle in her hand.

Chibs found himself in a conundrum. On one hand he found himself totally turned on by Allison's aggressiveness, but on the other hand he was actually terrified of what she might do.

"I just wanted to make sure that ya' were okay," Chibs replied rather calmly, despite his palpitating heart.

Allison noticed the bottle of Jameson whiskey in his right hand, and the bag brown bag of what she assumed was some greasy fast food in the other hand.

"What's that all about?" Allison asked curtly, referring to the items.

Chibs's eyebrows went up in shock at her comment. Maybe she wasn't going to bash his nuts after all…?

"I just thought that ya' would want some food, seeing as that yer' shopping got disrupted this afternoon," Chibs answered in a tentative tone.

Allison took a sharp breath in through her nose, and twitched her mouth side to side.

Her intuition told her that Chibs' intentions were genuine. If he really wanted to bitch at her about respecting club members and so forth; he would have done so the moment she had opened the door.

She sensed that he wasn't the sheepish type when it came to defending the honour of the club.

Based upon all of their interactions over the past few days, she could tell that Chibs really wanted to get to know her better. Although at that given moment, Allison really couldn't find it in herself to give two flying fucks - she was simply done with the day.

Moreover, she was done dealing with men. The drunk driver, the police, Kozik, and Chibs' attention were just too much. After spending so many years secluded from reality behind bars, she had slightly forgotten about the selfishness of the opposite sex.

If there was one lesson Allison had taken from the day; it was that whatever God lived up the stratosphere was warning her to stay away from bikers.

"I'll take that and that," Allison replied as she snatched the bag of fast food and bottle of liquor out of Chibs' hands, "but you can get the hell of this porch. I have had a really rotten day, and the last thing I want to do is spend time with a fucking Son of Anarchy. Thanks for the concern, but you and your gash of a Queen can go fuck yourselves."

Having spoken her mind, Allison slammed the door in the baffled Scotsman's face without a second thought.

Chibs stood still for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. Compared to all of his other interactions with Allison, this one was definitely unexpected. The bottle of Jack Daniels in her hand probably had something to do with her straightforwardness, though.

Maybe Juice was right when he warned him to stay away from her?

There was one thing Chibs did know - he was going to have one-hundred and one questions for Kozik tomorrow. The same thing would also be true the next time he visited Juice.

But until then, Allison certainly wouldn't be leaving his thoughts.

Xxx

As Kozik lay on his bed, he listened to the usual nighttime sounds of people scurrying about the clubhouse. He hoped nobody would pop in and try to see if he was "okay", because the truth was that he was far from it.

He wasn't surprised in the least that Allison wasn't happy to see him. He didn't really blame her for decking him either. He actually would have been kind of worried if Allison hadn't.

What Kozik was surprised about though – was the fact that she physically trembling in fear, at the sight of him. The awestruck look he saw in her eyes was the very same look she used to get, when she would confide in him about how much Paul's temper scared her.

How the hell did he get himself to this point?

Allison, the person whose opinion Kozik valued the most - now regarded his character as being no better than Paul's.

Paul Maganoli had to have been one of the lowest, most vile pieces of shit to ever walk the face of the planet. Kozik had no idea how he never shot the bastard's head off for so many years, knowing how he treated his family.

To sum up Kozik's opinion of the Paul – he wished Allison wouldn't have stopped with smashing in Paul's face. She should have first chopped off his dick while he was still alive and stuck it in his mouth, between his fat Italian lips. Then she should have drenched him in gasoline and flicked a packet of lit matches on him.

No wait - _Kozik_ should have been the one to kill Paul.

What kind of a man places his wife, not to mention an innocent child, between two criminal organizations to use as some sort of perverse, peace broker?

Allison had no choice but to try and run away from Paul.

If she had spoken up and told the MC about what Paul's real intentions within MC – Paul's family in Chicago would have pinned her as a rat greenlit her. The MC also would have probably also greenlit Allison themselves. After all, her not speaking up about how the Italian Mafia was ripping them off lost them thousands of dollars.

To survive Allison needed to grab her daughter and go far, far away. But Allison also needed someone to protect her and love her; which is obviously where Kozik came in.

Briella also needed to have a male figure in her life. No wait scratch that – Kozik was her Dad in every which way, except biologically. In his off time, he took her to the park, bought her ice cream and generally treated her like royalty.

Her little smile, laugh, and overall innocence brought an indescribable joy to Kozik's life. He had never thought of himself as a family type man before - but it wasn't long until he was yearning to start his _own_ family with Allison.

If he would have told the club to go fuck themselves, and went away to California when Allison and Briella did - none of the shit probably would have gone down.

Kozik's train of thought was disrupted when he saw the steel doorknob begin to twist. The person on the other side of the door tried to jiggle the door when they realized that the door was locked.

He was so depressed and physically tired that he could not even manage the strength to tell the person to go fuck off.

"You can stop hiding now. Literally everybody has left the compound," Piney called out in a matter of fact tone.

Kozik growled in pain as he pulled his sore body, up off of his bed.

"For real? Cause' I'm in no mood for any bullshit, old man," Kozik answered as he limped towards bedroom door.

"For Christ sake yes!" Piney replied, getting irritated having to address Kozik through a thick piece of steel and wood, "I got a big fat bottle of Jim Beam's finest sitting on freshly opened the bar. I know how much you like your whiskey son."

Kozik let out a sigh. He had sworn off booze for a while after his escapade last week, but a few stiff belts would help to dull the burning throb he felt in his face, arm, and ass cheeks.

When Kozik unlocked the door, it brought a smile to his face to see that in his right hand, Piney held his sterling silver flask. Piney's left arm was wrapped around a ratty looking, cardboard banker's file box, which probably dated back to the 1960's. What was inside the box however, was priceless trove of treasure.

"Let's go," Kozik said as his bit his bottom lip the way he always does.

As he limped down the hallway towards the main area of the clubhouse, Piney made an effort to match his slow pace. As they staggered along Piney talked, "That shit outside was rough today. There's nothing worse than having a bunch of groveling shitheads hovering around you, while you're at rock bottom."

"Ain't that the truth," Kozik replied with a sheepish laugh. He was surprised and embarrassed to feel his cheeks getting warm.

Piney could see the rosy color on the blonde's cheeks through the corner of his eyes. He could help but to laugh, "Don't be so damn bashful. Being taken down by a woman isn't the end of the world."

Kozik looked at Piney, shocked that the old man read his mind for the second time that day.

Piney snorted and took a swig of tequila before he explained with a devil grin, "there was this time – back in 79' I think – Mary and I were still married. Anyways, she had stopped by the garage to pick up Opie, who I was supposed to be watching for the day. He was inside the clubhouse watching T.V, while I had my face buried in some sweet, blonde bush, which was sitting on top of the 67' Cadillac I was supposed to be fixing up."

"What'd Mary do? I'm sure she was pissed."

"Took the lug wrench laying on top of my tool box and whacked aside the head so hard – I fell unconscious right on top of the bimbo's snatch," Piney laughed.

Kozik laughed right alongside Piney. Sometimes he wished that he could have met Piney when he was in his heyday. He was sure that Piney would have put even Bobby or Tig's partying to shame.

By that point, the duo's slow pace had finally brought them out into the main area of the clubhouse.

Kozik grabbed the promised bottle of whiskey off of the bar, and then lay down on the large leather couch by the pool table.

Piney however, diverted his path and went behind the bar.

He tucked his flask into his kutte's breast pocket, set down the box on the counter, crouched down on his knees, and opened the cabinet which contained the stereo equipment for the entire clubhouse. He let out a grunt of disgust as he shut off the electronic stereo which was playing some sort of modern day, heavy metal crap.

Piney had nothing against rock and roll music. In fact some of his favorite music came out of the 60's and 70's rock era.

Most of the shit that gets produced today though, wasn't even worthy of being put on a radio; let alone released on a CD. He didn't know if it was because he was old, but the quality of musicianship in his day was leaps and bounds above the current music being produced.

Tonight wasn't the right time to listen to songs about drugs or broads, however. What Kozik needed was some old fashioned, honkytonk style, heartbreak songs.

Piney was one of the few people who knew about the blonde's secret love for country music.

Kozik kept it secret because it really just wouldn't look good for a big tough biker, to roll up on his Harley blasting Keith Whitley or Marty Stuart.

Piney could get away with it though, because he was old enough that people wouldn't care about what kind of music some half dead geezer listened to.

After Piney had lifted the dusty plastic cover up of the record player, he stood up and flipped through his box of records until he found the one he was looking for – a George Jones greatest hits album.

The arrangement of the tracks was just perfect. Nothing but powerful, cry your heart out, whiskey drinking, love songs.

When Piney flicked the switch, and the needle touched down – it only took a few second before the hollow sounding grooves turned into the Possum's velvety, yet raw voice.

Back over on the couch, Kozik closed his eyes and rested his backwards as he listened to the personally haunting, true words of "_A Picture of Me Without You_".

_Imagine a world where no music was playing  
then think of a church where nobody's praying  
if you've ever looked up at a sky with no blue  
then you've seen a picture of me without you_

_Have you walked in a garden where nothing was growing  
or stood by a river where nothing was flowing  
if you've seen a red rose un-kissed by the dew  
then you've seen a picture of me without you_

_Can you picture Heaven with no angels singing  
or a quiet Sunday morning with no church bells ringing  
if you've watched as the heart of a child's breaks in two  
then you've seen a picture of me without you..._

_xxx_

**A/N: Well I know it has been several weeks since I have update! Sorry! **

**I felt bad for taking so long to update so that why this chapter is nice and long!**

**Excuse #1 is that my school has been domineering my life like crazy… Excuse #2 I had finished watching the entire series of the Shield (the show Kurt Sutter worked on before SOA). I was so enraged by the ending of the series that I had to write a one shot about it haha. Check out my profile if you are interested in reading it ;)**

**I know the past between Kozik and Allison seems really grey, or sketchy right now – but you will understand it all in due time! **

**If you guys have any thoughts or input, I am curious to know what you think thus far: Who do you think will get with Allison, Chibs or Kozik? (This is listed as a romance so at the end of the day so somebody will!) **

**Thank for reading, and if you have any sort of opinion about my story please review! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own SOA, only my OC's and their storyline. I do not own any other fiction works mentioned in the chapter either. **

xxx

"You're here early Pop," Opie said as he walked into the clubhouse, surprised to see the old man sitting at the bar with a shot of tequila in his hand.

It was 7:30am – usually Piney was still passed out at that time of the day.

"Could say the same for you. I thought you and Lyla weren't supposed to be back with kids until tomorrow," Piney replied looking over his shoulder.

Opie let out a disappointed sounding sigh as he sat down on a stool beside Piney. His looked down at the counter and twiddled his thumbs as he answered, "her shooting schedule got pushed ahead, so we had to come back early."

"At least you got a few days out on the beach." Piney shrugged. He noticed that just like any other time his son had brought up Lyla's profession, Opie's entire body tensed up.

On one hand Piney understood Opie's uncomfortableness towards Lyla's work, because he had felt the same thing during the first few years of his relationship with Mary. He loathed the fact that Mary had paraded around nude for other men for a living. Deep down it made Piney feel like the level of affection he was able to give her wasn't enough – that he wasn't a good enough man.

On the other hand, Piney thought that Opie was a bit of an uptight dipshit for not embracing Lyla's "talent". What man wouldn't want to be in steady relationship with a woman who is an expert at sex? Next to getting drunk - having sex was the most blissful experience a man could have on the planet.

"Yeah, the kids really had fun," Opie nodded. He looked up from his hands, and noticed on that there were several records spread out across the counter behind the bar. "What's that all about?" he asked motioning with his head to the direction of the cardboard box, sitting on the bar to the left of Piney.

"Listened to a few of records last night – what's it to you?" Piney grunted.

Opie bit his bottom lip in apprehension. He knew that his Dad didn't break out his good vinyl unless something bad had happened.

"Mom okay?"

Piney furrowed his brow at his son, "yes."

"Something happened at Stockton?"

"No."

"The club?" Opie was running out of possibilities.

"For Christ's sake - no!" Piney growled before he took the shot in his hand. After recovering from the burn he explained, "Some shit went down here yesterday. Kozik had a really rough day, so I stayed with him here overnight."

"What type of shit?" Opie asked. He would have felt bad if club shit went down while he was away.

Opie wasn't at all surprised by his Dad's response, however. He knew that Piney had always had a bit of a spot when it came to Kozik. Piney never explained why he was fond of Kozik – talking about emotions was not a exactly a Winston family trait.

After the whole ordeal with Missy and Tig went down all those years ago, Piney had been one of the only members who didn't want Kozik to transfer to SAMTAC.

Even though Opie was just a prospect at that time, he remembered hearing through the Chapel walls his Dad and Clay arguing about who should be sent away. His Dad argued that Kozik had ten times the brains Tig did. Furthermore, Piney always thought that Tig's borderline, sociopathic tendencies would get SAMCRO into a lot of trouble down the road.

Clay argued that Kozik, would never be nothing more than a ditzy, ex-junkie. Clay was so infuriated that Piney dared to insult Tig - his right hand man - so blatantly, that Opie was surprised that he didn't try to blow off his Dad's head.

"Some broad smacked him across the head with beer bottle – caused quite the ruckus," Piney stated matter of fact. He purposely left out the details of the conversation he had with Kozik before the incident went down. What Kozik had confided to him was none of anybody else's business.

Piney had learned over the years that gossip only lead to trouble - especially when it came to club member's personal lives.

"Shit," Opie tilted his head back amazement. Suddenly the light bulb went off in his head, so he asked, "did this chick have reddish hair, hazel eyes, and a small nose by any chance? Did he call her Allison?"

Piney looked up from the bar to his son with his mouth slightly gaped.

How the hell did Opie know about Kozik's old flame?

"I didn't see the ordeal happen. I was inside the clubhouse, and came out after I heard the commotion," Piney responded.

The growl that was meshed into his Dad's voice, told Opie it was best to back away from the topic before it put him in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

"Well I think I'm going to get a head start on that accountant's Fat Boy I'm supposed to be restoring this week," Opie said as he got up from the stool. He was just about the door when he realized that he didn't even ask if Kozik was okay or not. He turned around and awkwardly asked, "Kozik going to be okay, Pop?"

Piney let out an irritated sigh, "he'll be fine as long as you people stop trying to mollycoddle him, like he was some sort of fucking invalid."

Opie thought about it for second and realized that his Dad was right. He hated having people try to pry into his life and attempt to comfort him, after Donna had passed away.

"Right, I'll make sure the message gets passed on."

Opie was still going to keep an eye on Kozik, to watch for signs if he started to use again. The last thing SAMCRO needed in its diminished state was to lose one of their few members on the outside to heroin.

Xxx

Juice was laying his bunk, looking up at the cracked, white painted, concrete ceiling of his cell. He was so bored – he actually thought he was about to go into a state of psychosis.

It had been two days since Juice and Clay had been moved to separate cells. Apparently the guards had finally gotten wise and realized their mistake that four out of the five SAMCRO member's shared cells.

His new cellmate's snoring was so obnoxiously loud that it was starting to give him a headache. All that Rodrigo Zuniga seemed to do was sleep all day. Then at night when Juice tried to sleep, Rodrigo would keep him up with a combination of grunting noises while he either exercised, or jerked off.

As Juice listened to Rodrigo go into the gurgling phase of his snore cycle, he prayed to whatever shitheel of a God there may be up in the sky; that the rest of the guys ended up with cellmates who were just as annoying.

Out of nowhere, Juice heard the loud buzzing sound which signalled that his cell door was going to be opened. For once in his life, he was actually thankful to see a prison guard. He hoped like hell that they were there to take him out of the cell.

"On your feet Ortiz – you've got yourself a visitor," one of the guards said in a very monotone voice.

Juice couldn't help but to smile like a Cheshire cat. He was pretty sure that it was Allison back to see him.

He couldn't wait to hear all about how Allison was doing in her second week of freedom. He was also curious to know what she thought about his house. He knew that his house wasn't exactly a centerfold picture spread for, _Better Home and Gardens - _but he hoped that she would be proud of the fact that he had actually bought a home for himself.

Since they were teenagers, Allison had always tried to drive her strong work ethic into his skull. She was literally the only person back in Queens, who encouraged him to try and form a life outside of poverty and crime.

When Allison got accepted into nursing school at the University of Sacramento, she hoped that it would encourage Juice to get his ass in gear and pursue his talent of mechanics; rather than his talent of being a criminal. He always had this taunting voice in the back of his mind, telling him that he had failed to honour her wishes.

Yes, he work for forty hours a week as a certified journeyman mechanic – but off the books he was an outlaw biker.

Juice's beaming smile turned into a bit of a frown when he was led into the visitation hall, and saw that is was Chibs – not Allison – whom was waiting to see him. He didn't like the serious look on Chibs' face as he sat down across from him.

"How ya' doin' Juicy boy?" Chibs asked forcing his lips to form a smile.

Juice didn't reply right away, because he was fighting the urge to bust out laughing at how ridiculously cheesy, not to mentioned forced, Chibs' smile looked. It kind of reminded Juice of the way that guy on _Oxy-Clean_ infomercials grinned.

"What, not happy to see me?" Chibs halfway teased.

"Naw," Juice responded, his frown turning into his signature grin, "just thought that it was somebody else here to see me – that's all."

Juice realized that he acting like an ass, and that he should be thankful that Chibs had taken the time out of his day to come and visit him. Besides, one hour of yard a day, and going to the chow hall three times a day, for a short period of time – was by no means enough time away from Rodrigo, the Mexican sleeping monster.

"You were hoping that there would be a better looking person on the other side of this table ta' come and see ya' – perhaps a certain redhead we both know?" Chibs said with a wink.

"Sounds about right," Juice laughed. "So you gave Allison the keys to my place and everything? I hope Gemma didn't throw too much of a fuss – you know how Gem gets about outsiders."

A nervous chuckle escaped from Chibs' lips. Where the hell should he even begin?

"Uh, now before I say anything; I want ya' to know that Allison is okay… Her truck got t-boned yesterday while it was parked on the side of Main Street –"

"Holy shit! Is she okay?" Juice blurted out, subsequently interrupting Chibs' story. His heart began to beat very rapidly as he waited for the Scotsman to reply.

The last Allison was in a car accident, she just about had to have one of her legs amputated.

"Aye, now don't go and get yourself into a tizzy. Allison wasn't even in the vehicle when it happened," Chibs responded. "Phil and I, towed her truck to TM. Sadly, it isn't going to be a write off. I estimate the damages ta' be close ta' twenty-five hundred dollars."

"Oh shit," Juice said, feeling bad that Allison would have such rotten luck so soon after released from prison.

"Aye," Chibs nodded in agreement.

"Is that all you had to tell me about brother?" Juice asked.

"Actually no…" Chibs began to run his fingers over his bearded chin out of nervousness, "there was an incident between Allison and another club member when she was leaving TM yesterday."

Juice felt like his heart plummeted into his stomach. Here it comes – somebody recognized Allison as Paul Maganoli's ex-old lady – and now Chibs was there ream his ass having contact with a club traitor.

"Chibs look brother, I can explain everything," Juice pleaded anxiously.

"Thank Christ for that, because Kozik ain't saying one peep as to why Allison felt the need to smash him across the face with glass bottle. I stopped by yer' place last night to see if she was okay… she basically told me that the Kozik and the club should leave her alone, in a rather blunt fashion I might add. I haven't talked to Gemma yet today because I came here first thing. Although I think Allison, may have ruffled Gemma feathers a bit yesterday as well," Chibs referred to Allison's description of Gemma as "_that_ _a gash of Queen_."

Chibs was completely clueless about the little spat the two women had in the office, before the Kozik incident went down.

Juice began to bob one of his legs up and down anxiously. What the hell did Kozik ever do to Allison? From what she told him, Allison rarely came into contact with the other SAMTAC member's, besides Paul.

He remembered that Allison said her avoidance had something to do with how she couldn't stand the way Lee's old lady Barbara, and Donut's old lady Linda; were always up her ass about how she should spend less time worrying about her nursing career, and focus on being a better old lady and Mother.

If there was one thing in the world that would send Allison into a blind rage; Juice knew that it'd have to be somebody critiquing her skills as a Mom. Briella was the absolute most important thing to her on the entire planet. To sum it up, Allison's motto was - you mess with my daughter, and you are dead cocksucker.

"I have literally no idea why Allison would do such a thing to Kozik, or for that matter, how she would even know him," Juice lied through his teeth.

"Aye," Chibs replied tentatively, not entirely believing Juice.

Before anything else could be said, the two guards walked up behind Juice, told him that time was up and hauled him away.

Chibs had gotten the impression that Allison harboured a grudge against the MC. He suspected that figuring out exactly why she did was not going to an easy task.

Next person to talk to would be Kozik. Hopefully the conversation wouldn't end in Kozik smashing a beer bottle across his face…

Xxx

Juice was not surprised to find that Rodrigo hadn't moved an inch when he returned to the cell, and was still snoring away.

He had to do some very careful thinking about how he was going to approach the problem of Allison being on the club's radar. It was only a short matter of time before somebody connected the dots, and called up to Tacoma to confirm.

Juice wasn't stupid - he knew that the guys were going to blow a gasket when they find out that he had helped Allison gain her freedom.

He had some serious decisions to make, and they needed to be made fast for Allison's safety – and his.

Xxx

It felt like somebody was yelling in Allison's ear with a megaphone when her she awoke to the sound of somebody knocking on the front door. The sunlight filtering in through the small windowpanes in the door basically blinded her when she opened her eyes.

She was confused as to why her midsection of her shirt, and the top of her pants felt damp. When she looked down and saw that her pajamas were soaked in whiskey, she assumed that it probably belonged to the empty bottle lying dormant in her lap. All too soon, it came flooding back to her - the accident, Chibs, Gemma, Kozik – everything.

Suddenly there was another loud series of knocks from the door, which increased the pounding in Allison's head tenfold. When she tried to open her mouth to tell whatever asshole was knocking the door to fuck off, only a dry hacking noise came out. It felt like somebody had shoved an entire bag of cotton balls into her mouth.

"Allison Lowrance I can see you sitting there! Open this door already!"

Allison snapped out of her hangover induced fog, stumbled up onto her feet and opened the door. Why on Earth was Rachel standing on her front porch, trying to break down the door?

"Oh thank God you are okay!" Rachel exclaimed as she pulled Allison into a tight embrace. She quickly pulled away though, when she felt how soiled Allison's shirt and pants were with alcohol.

Allison let out a groan of agony as she slumped against the wall, and slowly slid back down onto the floor and into her previous position of sitting with her knees pulled close to her chest. She cradled her head, which felt like the weight of a wrecking ball, in her hands.

"What the hell are you doing here? And for the love of God, please whisper," Allison grumbled.

Rachel went and sat down on the floor beside Allison. She felt a chill run down her creepy spine as she took in all of the SAMCRO and reaper decorations scattered throughout the living room. If she was Allison; all of those decorations would drive her crazy, because they'd constantly remind her of why she was sent to prison.

"You called me at like four-thirty this morning. You were crying so hard, I couldn't make out what was you were trying to say," Rachel answered in whisper. She eyed the empty Jack Daniels bottle lying on the carpet between her and Allison and added, "I am guessing that that empty bottle has something to do with it?"

With her head still in her hands Allison simply stated, "He's here."

Rachel furrowed her brow in confusion. "Who's here?"

There was a long, heavy, ominous silence before Allison got up the courage to tell Rachel, "He's here… Herman Kozik, is here in Charming. SAMCRO…"

"WHAT?" Rachel's voice boomed like a canon.

Allison head thrashed back, hitting the wall from the shock of Rachel's sudden change in volume. "Stop yelling," she moaned.

"Shit," Rachel wanted to say more, but she was too stunned.

It was a cruel irony. If Allison still wanted to work in nursing, she would have to suffer the indignity of living in the same town as scumbag outlaw who was responsible for locking her up.

"Oh my fucking head," Allison whined, wishing that she could just conk over and die.

The only other time she could remember feeling so hung over, was the morning after she graduated from nursing school. That morning she wished would have just died from alcohol poisoning because her nausea was that potent.

On this particular morning Allison, was lucky in that department because she only had a wee hint of nausea.

"Come on, let's go get you into the shower. I'll take you out to lunch and then you can tell me all about it," Rachel said as she got up off of the floor, and held out her hand for Allison to grab as she stood up.

She was very happy with her choice to push back all of her appointment, and drive down to Charming. Allison was a woman who was clearly in need of a friend.

xxx

By 1:00pm Rachel, had poured enough coffee and water down Allison's throat that she felt halfway human. So, the two women decided to go out for lunch.

They decided on going to a local greasy spoon diner just around the corner from Juice's street, because really – nothing cures a hangover better than greasy, sodium saturated, food.

"I'll have the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings," Rachel said as she gave the waitress her order.

"Uh, I guess I'll have the same thing," Allison also told the waitress.

"Sure," the waitress replied. She took a second to eye Allison up and down before she commented, "I'll make sure to keep the coffee coming, darling." The waitress then promptly spun around on her heels, and left the two women alone.

"Do I really look that bad?" Allison grumbled as she bowed her head in embarrassment from the waitress' comment.

Rachel bit her bottom and fought back the urge to laugh. The waitress hit the nail on the head - Allison really did look rough.

She was wearing a pair of plain black yoga pants, and a dark purple hoodie. Her hair was pulled back into a messy half ponytail, half bun. There were puffy, grey bags under her bloodshot eyes, which really didn't help to make her pale complexion look more lifelike.

"Oh just say it. I look as bad as I feel," Allison scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Rachel couldn't hold her tongue anymore and responded in a dry tone, "_Wednesday _from the _Addams Family,_ looked more alive than you do right now."

Allison let out a long sigh. She supposed that she had put off telling Rachel about the whole Kozik ordeal for long enough. Rachel had been patient, but Allison could tell that Rachel desperately wanted to know the details.

"So you know how my truck got hit and is in shop, blah, blah," Allison paused for Rachel's acknowledgement. After a brief head nod from her, Allison continued on, "So anyways, out of the all the garages to choose from in Charming, the cops called TM Automotive to come and tow my truck… TM is SAMCRO's legitimate business."

Rachel's eyebrows shot upwards at Allison's comment, "Okay. So I am assuming the garage is where you ran into Kozik. What happened?"

"It's funny you worded it as, '_running into him_'… I was on my way out of the compound when I suddenly collided with a large body, and almost fell backward onto my ass. I looked up and there he was - Herman Kozik. As cliché as it sounds, I literally thought that I was dreaming at first. But when he said my name, I knew that it was really him standing in front of me," Allison began to pick underneath her fingernails as she spoke. "You know it's funny, after all of this time he still called me Allie. He used to tell me that he though Allison was too stuffy sounding for me."

"What did he say to you?" Rachel asked. She felt sorry for the way the life seemed to dim out of Allison's eyes, when Allison brought up her past with Kozik.

Even though Allison was too stubborn to admit it, Rachel knew that Kozik still had a hold on Allison's heart. Just how strong the hold was; Rachel had no clue.

Allison let out a soft, sad sounding chuckle, "All he said was that this wasn't how he wanted us to meet again, or something along those lines…"

"Hold up! You mean _he knew_ that you're out of prison and are staying in Charming?" Rachel exclaimed in a raised tone.

Was Kozik really that much of a creep to have kept tabs on his ex-lover for all of those years?

"He probably saw me the few times I had to go to TM before yesterday, when I went to get the keys to Juice's house," Allison answered flatly. She assumed that Kozik saw her the night she had frozen after she had heard him laughing.

"Uh huh," Rachel looked at Allison in the eye and asked her point blank, "do I need to be worried about your safety, Allison?"

"What? God no!" Allison blurted out. She accidently came off sounding a bit offended, even though she knew that Rachel was just trying to be a good friend/ex-attorney.

"Allison, this man whom supposedly loved you, gave you up like some sort of petty ante bingo prize to save a branch of a criminal organization."

Allison didn't know what to say. She knew that every word Rachel had just said was true. But how could all of the feelings her and Kozik shared be a lie?

In her entire life, she had never connected with another human being as strongly as she did with Kozik. He knew everything there was to possibly know about her, and could even anticipate what she was thinking. And then there was all of those time he had told her that he loved her – was all just an act, and she was that gullible to believe him? Or maybe he did he really love her, but he was lying to her about how he didn't want to live the outlaw life anymore.

Kozik's betrayal was a question Allison had been asking herself for almost seven years, and was sure that she wasn't going to figure it out anytime soon…

She let out a frustrated sigh before finally responding to Rachel's comment, "All I can do is just wait it out and see what happens. Like I said last week when you asked me about how comfortable I am around SAMCRO; they cannot really do anything to me. Throughout the entire process I never ratted on the MC, so they have no reason to take any action against my presence here in Charming. Even though I did kill Paul, my betrayal levels itself out in the MC's outlaw justice scales. If I didn't murder him – SAMTAC would have made sure that he would have met the Mayhem."

"I'll have to take your word, Allison. You know more about that the world more than I do. But if that bastard Kozik, or any other member of that club ever lays a hand on you… I'll never forgive myself for setting you up in this town," Rachel admitted.

Allison was touched by Rachel comment. She decided that it was just best to stop her story there.

All of the other details about her losing it on Kozik, disrespecting Gemma, and having a club member wanting to go out on a date with her, would just sent Rachel into a tizzy. This day was probably going to be the last time for a bit where she and Rachel could spend time together, seeing as that her nursing recertification classes were going to be starting up next week.

Even though Allison felt like shit, she wanted rest of the day to be spent talking about positive subjects, and have fun for the first time in a long time.

xxx

Gemma was surprised when she pulled into the TM parking lot in the early afternoon, and saw that Tara was sitting at one of the tables outside by the boxing ring, with both Thomas and Abel.

Tara didn't usually leave the hospital until 5:00pm. Even though she made a lot of money, not having Jax's income for ten months had put a strain on the family's bank account. Everyday living expenses combined with, the expenses of having an infant and one chronically ill child, added up surprisingly fast.

As soon as Gemma got out of her SUV, she made a beeline towards Tara. She hoped like hell nothing was wrong with the guys inside Stockton. The only other time since the guys had went inside that Tara was at the compound with the boys at an odd hour; was the day that Tara had gotten the that Jax had been stabbed by a Russian.

"Is everything okay?" The worry in Gemma's tone was very obvious.

"Oh yeah, everything is cool," Tara hadn't put any thought into the fact that her presence at an odd hour may mean trouble, until she had spotted the panic on Gemma's face.

Gemma's posture relaxed as she replied, "that's good. Why aren't you and the boys at, St. Thomas?"

"There was some sort of issue with a water pipe bursting at the hospital, so they had to shut down the surgical floor. My surgery got pushed back until tomorrow. I thought I'd drop by and check up on how Kozik's doing."

"You shouldn't have bothered sweetie," Gemma sighed as she pulled out a chair and sat at the table. "According to Opie - Kozik and Piney the entire night here drinking booze and listen to Piney's geezer records. Kozik woke up around noon and had Phil drive him home in the van. I tried to ask him how he was holding up, but he just told me to go to hell for the millionth time this week. Chibs tried to talk to him as well, but Kozik also told Chibs where to go. This is some pretty serious shit, Tara. It's been a long time since I'v seen Kozik this torn up."

Tara tilted her head back in shock, "lipping people off doesn't sound like Kozik."

Gemma arched an eyebrow and stated in a dry tone, "yeah no shit. I think that his random booze bender last week had something to with, Gimpy."

"Gimpy?" Tara asked, knowing that if Gemma had given Juice's mysterious friend a nickname already – she was really on Gemma's bad side.

"I went to Juice's place last night to rip that bitch a new one, and when she opened the door I saw that her legs were completely fucked up. It was like she had swapped legs with Frankenstein or something," Gemma replied wryly.

"Well did you find out why she attacked Kozik?" Tara inquired, not sure what to make of Gemma's observation.

"No! Gimpy slammed the door in my face before I could find out," Gemma scathed while shaking her head.

"Holy shit," Tara blurted out.

"Yeah I know," Gemma said as she took her sunglasses off and set them on top of her head.

"Well you mentioned yesterday that she had just gotten out of prison – do you know why she was inside?" Tara asked, her inquisitive mind trying to piece together the scenario.

"No, but Unser has a niece who works in the headquarters office for the California Department of Corrections. He's going to do a favour for me and getting his niece to pull all of the records there are for, Gimpy. We should know exactly what her angle is with SAMCRO, any day now. Until then, all we can do is wait and keep an eye on Kozik. The only other time I have seen him so distraught was after the whole Missy and Tig ordeal, went down."

Tara was surprised at Gemma's last comment. She had found out from eavesdropping in on conversations here and there, that Tig and Kozik's beef was over some dog named Missy. Among the SAMCRO circle; the feud was a taboo subject.

Also, Tara knew that this was one of those old lady situations, of which she was unfamiliar of what the proper protocol should be. Even though she wanted to drive over to Juice's house, and give this outside a Gemma style scare – she would just have to sit back and follow the Queen's lead.

Xxx

It was around 11:00pm, and Rachel had left Allison to drive home about an hour ago.

Allison was lounging on the couch in the living room, combing through the categories of the twenty-first century, technological miracle know as _Netflix._ If she'd been allowed to access this miracle program while in Chowchilla, the time would have flown by so fast.

She had narrowed the field of choice down to the television category. She was mentally debating whether she should catch up on _Grey's Anatomy, _or _Lost._ Before she could make up her mind, a steady series of sharp knocks bellowed out from the direction of the front door.

Allison snapped her head over her shoulder to the right, and stared at the front door. Part of her wanted to answer the door, and tell whoever had the balls to knock on somebody's door at eleven o'clock at night to grab a brain.

The other part of her was scared to open the door. Last night she had opened the door to a crazy biker queen, an odd Scottish outlaw biker, and a god damned Sheriff.

The person on the other side of the door knocked again, this time more vigorously than before.

Allison walked approached the front door, but her feet stuck to the carpet like superglue about a foot away from the door. She still did not have to the courage to open that damn door. After a few anxious moments of heavy silence; the person on the other side of the door spoke up.

"Allison, I know yer' in there. Look, I understand if ya' don't want ta' speak to me after yesterday. I just came here ta' tell ya' that I can't write off your truck, unfortunately," Chibs' Scottish accent rung out. He took a moment to get a handle on his nerves before informing Allison, "Kozik isn't seriously hurt… but if he tried to hurt ya', hurt ya' in the past - or even if ya' think he may hurt ya' - don't hesitate to call me. I'll drop everything and come runnin' ta' help ya'."

Chibs cringed and closed his eyes at the lack of movement and sound that filled his ears. He hoped that he wasn't talking to a wall and making a fool of himself. However, when he heard Allison inhale sharply as if she was fighting back the urge to cry; he quickly added on, "I will call yer twice a day, until you feel that you are ready to talk." He waited several moments for Allison to articulate a reply. After what seemed like an eternity of heart wrenching sobs, he finally gave up and reluctantly walked off of the porch, down the steps, and climbed back onto his Dyna.

As he buckled up the chin strap of his helmet, his intuition overwhelmed him with the feeling that Allison's story went way beyond whatever went on between her and Kozik in the past.

Juice's words of how, _"her ex-husband and his associates screwed her over,"_ suddenly made sense. So did Allison's backhanded referrals to how the MC worked; Juice's sudden jitteriness when during his visit in the morning; and the wall Kozik and Allison both seemed to put up when Chibs, brought up either individual…

This was definitely not Allison's first rodeo.

xxx

**A/N: So a quick update, Yay! **

**Thank you to my reviewer, and the people who have followed/ favorite since my last update. **

**My next chapter is going to be a flashback chapter, to an episode of when Allison was in Chowchilla. **

**I know that there wasn't a lot of Kozik in this chapter, but there will be more to come – trust me! **

**Thanks for reading and please review; good or constructive criticism is always welcome! **


	8. Chapter 8

Allison lay on her bunk, and stared at the small calendar on the far wall. The print was so fine she that couldn't read what the dates were, but it did not matter because a series of black _X's _scribbledover each past day, told her all that she needed to know.

"Are you just going to lie there all day and stare at that calendar, Allison?"

The sound of her cellmate's voice from the bunk above her did not break her fixation on the calendar. After about five minutes of not responding; Allison spoke up in a very detached tone, "Today is November 14th, 2006. I've been in this place for exactly two years."

Allison heard her cellmate sit up and let out a large sigh, before she climbed down off of the top bunk. She groaned in frustration – she was in no mood to deal with one of Helen Josephson's, mother hen lectures.

"I don't want to hear about it, Helen."

Helen was the second cellmate Allison, had since she arrived at Chowchilla. Being fifty-nine years of age, definitely made Helen one of the older inmates in the facility. She stood 5'1 from the ground, and was quite plump around the middle which was due to living off low quality prison food, for the past thirty-seven years. The shiny bob of silver hair on top of her head brought out the softness, in her tired blue eyes.

Helen walked up to the calendar and without a word, took it off of the wall. She then stuffed it the crevasse between the wall, and the small stainless steel dresser that the two women shared.

"Hey, what the hell!" Allison roared in outrage. She got up and walked over to Helen, so that they were standing face to face.

"Honey, I've had thirty-seven days where I've felt like you do today. There is no point in dwelling on the fact that you have been prison for a certain number of years. There isn't one woman in this place who wouldn't want to turn back the clock, and do things differently – but we just can't," Helen said in a calm fashion.

Allison had a lot of respect for Helen, but this day, her mood was so black that she couldn't help but to roll her eyes. She let out an irritated huff before she replied, "I am very well aware of the fact that as a mere mortal, I do not possess the ability to manipulate the space-time continuum."

Helen narrowed her eyes, and looked at Allison from head to toe. A heavy feeling formed at the pit of her stomach because Allison, reminded her so much of herself at that age; relativity fresh in prison, still reeling over the men had screwed her over, and as angry as hell.

She knew that what Allison needed was patience, so – it was exactly what she was going to get.

"If you are so aware of it, I suggest that you comb your hair and wash your face. The guards will be here to escort us to the group meeting in twenty minutes."

Allison wrapped her arms around herself and grimaced. The absolute last thing she wanted to do, was to sit in a big circle with a bunch of remorseful, weak women; and listen to them blubber on and on about how their abusive boyfriends and husbands ruined their lives.

Sure, Allison was no different. She was put in jail because her husband had pushed her to the point of murder – but at least she had given it her all to get herself and Briella away from the prick. Allison also doubted that any of the other women in the group had their husband put them in the middle of a dick measuring contest, between a bunch of white trash bikers and the Italian Mafia.

Before Allison could reply, the cell door suddenly buzzed open and a male guard stepped inside.

"Let's go Lowrance, your attorney is waiting for you."

For the first time in several days, a grin spread across Allison's face. Rachel had come to her rescue!

Xxx

Rachel was very relieved when the door to the private visitation room buzzed open and Allison shuffled inside, escorted by two prison guards. She had been waiting for close to an hour for Allison to arrive.

The faint musty odour and the dull beige walls were beginning to stress out Rachel. She had a touch of claustrophobia, so naturally she did not overly enjoy being in private visitation room in prison's, for too long.

As the guards freed Allison from her wrist and ankle shackles; Rachel took the brief interlude to reposition all of the papers on the table, one last time.

This day was a very important day because, this would be the first major step toward building Allison a solid appeal case. All of Allison's medical setbacks were hopefully behind her, so now it would be full steam ahead.

Once Allison was seated and the guards had left the two women alone - Rachel was the first to talk, "You're looking better today, Allison."

"I guess so…" Allison mumbled back, certain that Rachel was bullshitting her.

How she possibly look _good,_ wearing a bright orange jumpsuit that was three sizes too big, and a pair of grey rubber clogs? She thought that her ghostly skin tone, combined with the grey bags underneath her eyes, made her look like some sort of demon from a horror movie. Never mind the fact that she hadn't bothered to brush her tangled hair or wash her oily face for the past two days.

Rachel let out a sigh. Allison's slouched posture, dimmed eyes and unexpressive tone, were sadly a common phenomenon she'd seen time and time again, with her clients whom felt defeated by their predicament.

"I uh, deliberately planned out meeting so that you'd miss the support group today," Rachel commented. She knew Allison well enough that the last thing she'd want to do was discuss Paul, on her two year anniversary of being locked up.

Rachel had advised her to take part in a support group within the prison, where inmates convicted of crimes related to domestic violence, worked out whatever issues or problems they might have. Due to the nature of Allison's case and her personality in general; Rachel knew that Allison loathed going to the group. However, at the end of the day when it came time to take her appeal to court, the judge would want to see that Allison had done everything possible to better herself, while incarcerated. Even if all she did was sit in an uncomfortable plastic chair for an hour straight, one day a week – the group still look good on paper.

Allison gave Rachel a weak smile, "thanks." She paused to sneeze before inquiring, "So, we are going to confirm the topics before you meet up with Juice?"

"That's right," Rachel answered while motioning downward to the stacks of papers laid out on the steel table, "all our ideas our outlined in these packages. Take your time and give them a good look over."

Xxx

Allison set down the last page of the package Rachel had prepared. She stared at the array of papers spread out across the metal table. Seeing her life illustrated in cold, impersonal, black type gave Allison a somber sense of clarity.

Without lifting her eyes up from the papers, Allison asked, "So this is all of it, huh?"

"Yes, that's all of the topics and events that I am going to discuss with Juan Carlos," Rachel stated in a matter of fact tone.

"And Juice talking about all of this stuff will help out my case?" Allison asked still staring at the papers. She picked up one particular page between her right thumb and index finger, and turned it so that the print was facing Rachel. "Juice going on record about how as teenagers we lived off pork and beans for six months, will help me gain my freedom?"

"That example indicates how dedicated you are to the people you love in your life. When the judge sees the sacrifices you made when you took in Juan Carlos, after his Mother had passed away; it'll further exemplify your motherly instincts."

"Pork and beans…?" Allison retorted with raised eyebrows, still not believing that a judge would care about her diet as a teenager.

"It's a miniscule aspect I know, but every little bit helps," Rachel begrudgingly admitted.

Allison sighed and set the paper back down. She held her head in her hands and looked down at her lap, "It all seems good, but you have to remember – any topic even remotely related to the MC cannot be mentioned. If the MC finds out he is doing this for me, he'll probably lose his patch… or worse."

Rachel leaned over the table and placed a hand on Allison's arm. Her reassuring touch made Allison look up to her. "I promise you, nothing will be documented that could incriminated him, or the MC."

Allison bit her bottom lip and slowly nodded. She then looked up to the encaged clock, hanging up on the wall to her left. She had spent forty-five minutes with Rachel already; the support meeting would soon be over.

"Thank you. Also, thank you for stopping by today. It made my day a bit better," Allison told the truth.

"Anything for you, Allison," Rachel smiled as she stood up, and began to gather up the packets to put back into her briefcase.

After Rachel had collected everything, and knocked on the door so that she could be buzzed out; Allison blurted out a last minute thought, "Hey, remember not to mention Manny's name at all. Juice knows all about me having an affair with my neighbour, but what he doesn't know is that my neighbour was Herman Kozik… Juice will go postal if he finds out it was a club member."

As Rachel pulled open the door, she looked over left shoulder and replied, "I'll remember. I will stop by tomorrow to let you know how it goes with Juan Carlos, this afternoon."

Allison acknowledged her statement with a nod. She hoped like hell that Juice wouldn't bail at the last minute. He was the last person who could save her…

Xxx

Rachel sat at a picnic table, holding onto her paper coffee cup like her life depended on it. Even though it was only 5:00pm, she was very exhausted from her long drive up to Rouge River. She had followed Allison's instructions to the letter; sit at the blue wooden picnic table by the creek, in Creekside Park. Also, to not raise any suspicions, Rachel had stopped at a gas station on the way and changed into plain clothes. She wore a navy hoodie and a pair of black sweatpants, and switched her briefcase out for a plain grey and white backpack.

If any other club member saw Juice, talking in a park with a lady in a black Gucci pantsuit – it would look very fishy.

Rachel kept scanning the cars slowly driving along the road, and the people walking down the pathway by the road, for a Porte Rican man with a mowhawk.

When she had spotted Juice, the plan was that she would get up and go to the restroom. Once she had returned; Juice should be sitting at the picnic table waiting for her.

Rachel pulled her cellphone out of the outmost pocket in her backpack and flipped it open. Her pulse began to quicken when she saw that it was 5:15pm, and there was no sign of Juice anywhere. She prayed that he didn't change his mind about helping out Allison.

Allison had already experienced what it's like when a loved one turns their back on you during a time of need. Rachel wasn't sure if Allison could survive such heartache again.

A few more minutes passed, and still no sign of Juice. Then out of nowhere, the roar of Harley's disrupted the quaint, docile atmosphere of the park. There were two patched members parking their bikes in the parking lot across the road. Rachel stood up, and proceeded to the bathroom when she saw that the first biker to take off their helmet fit the description of Juice.

When she got out the bathroom, Rachel was shocked to see that Juice wasn't sitting alone at the picnic table. There was also another biker sitting beside him. He had longer blonde hair, and looked to be in his mid-twenties. Thankfully once Juice had seen her begin to head back toward the table, he said something to the blonde which made him get up and leave Juice alone; but not before shooting Rachel a scrutinizing glare.

Despite how antsy Rachel was when she sat down across the table from Juice; she didn't seem to show any sign of nervousness on the outside. She looked calm, cool, and very much collected.

Juice on the other hand, looked quite frazzled. His was hunched over the table, with his arms crossed and elbows resting on top of the table. Both of his legs were simultaneously, bobbing up and down at a rapid pace. Beads of perspiration glistened on top of his head, and ran down to his face.

"Juan Carlos Ortiz?" Rachel inquired as she unslung the backpack from her shoulders.

"That's right. I take it that you're, Rachel?" Juice asked in a wary tone as he looked over both of his shoulders to see who might be watching the pair.r

"Correct –"

Juice interrupted what Rachel was going to say. He straightened up his posture, and placed a hand into an inside pocket of his kutte, "look my buddy over there thinks that you are an old squeeze of mine who just got out of the can. Shit didn't go as planned today with SAMCRO's business up here today, so I lied and said I had to meet you here because you wanted to buy a little bit of weed. You got fifty bucks on you?"

"Uh, yes I do, but I'm not going to but drugs off of you," Rachel exclaimed feeling a bit baffled by the situation, as she opened up her backpack and grabbed her wallet.

"You're not – I filled the baggie up with basil flakes," Juice said as he pulled out a small plastic bag from his pocket.

Rachel pulled out a fifty dollar bill from her wallet, crumpled it up, and discreetly slipped it into Juice's hand when he handed her the baggie. She quickly threw the baggie it into her open backpack, and then looked around to see if anybody had seen the exchange. Nobody was close enough the see what had happened, so she felt a bit more at ease.

Juice placed the bill into his kutte pocket and surprised Rachel, when he pulled out a cheap looking, cellphone. He slid it across the table and explained as he got up, "It's a pre-pay. There's only my number on there. Call me tonight at quarter after eleven, and I'll give you a time and a place where we can meet up alone to talk about, Allison."

Before Rachel could get in a word, Juice was already walking away from her and back to where his bike was parked. She snatched up the phone and placed it into her backpack. She then got up, and began to walk over to the parking lot on the other side of the park, where she had parked her own vehicle.

Juice's actions were unexpected, but at least he made an effort to let Rachel know that he was on board with helping out.

Rachel would just have to wait until later that night to see what would happen next…


	9. Plans - Part 1

**A/N: LISTEN UP PEOPLE – My former account on here was CrazyCatLady002. However, my computer crashed and I was stupid enough to not write down my password for my email, or my account on here. **

**THIS IS NOT PLAGARISM. I AM THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR OF THIS FANFICTION.**

**If you think that this is a rouse, and report this account for plagiarism – well you are just really dumb and you are wasting your time. **

**I apologize for the gap in the updates but my life has been crazy. Thank you for all of the reviews on my old version of this fic, I really appreciate the support.**

**At the end of this chapter it may seem like it stops at a weird point, but when you read the next chapter, (part ii of this one) you'll understand why it stops where it does.**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I don't own SOA obviously, just my OC's and their story line.**

* * *

Five days had passed since Allison, had found out that Kozik was patched to SAMCRO, instead of SAMTAC.

She started her re-certification training at the hospital in three days. By this time, she had imagined that she'd be completely unpacked and settled into Juice's place. Instead, Allison had barely unpacked a single item.

Hell, she didn't even have any food in the house! She'd been living off of takeout food, Jack Daniels, tap water… and felt absolutely no shame.

Her way of dealing with the bombshell, was simply not dealing with it. All Allison did from the time she got up, to the time she went to bed, was sit on the couch and watch _Grey's Anatomy_, on Netflix_._ The only time she took a break was to order food, or when Rachel called her to see if she was still breathing.

Rachel knew that Allison good enough, to know that she needed to give Allison her space. After a few days, Allison would snap out of it and find a way to deal with her emotions in a healthy way. If she would try to intervene, Allison would withdrawal into herself completely – Rachel knew this from previous experience.

When the current episode of show concluded, Allison reluctantly picked up her cellphone from the couch cushion beside her to see who had bothered to call her at two in the afternoon. She groaned in agitation when she saw that the daring caller was Rachel.

"Might as well get this over with," Allison grumbled to herself as she flipped open her phone and dialed Rachel's number.

After a couple of rings Rachel answered, "It's about time you called me back!"

"Well I wasn't about to stop and answer my phone in the middle of an episode! Why didn't you tell me that the handsome Major, who saved Christina from that icicle, came back as a full time character? This Owen guy is pretty bad ass!" Allison rambled on, purposely disregarding Rachel's previous comment.

"Like I told you for the past six years; I will not spoil the epic amazingness of _Grey's Anatomy_!"

"Your mean," Allison spewed sarcastically.

"I know," Rachel chimed smugly.

"Look, I'm fine and alive. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to move onto the next episode and see what Owen does next. It's going to be pretty hard to beat that live tissue lab, with the pigs!" Allison then promptly hung up, not giving Rachel any time to refute.

Allison recoiled her arm and was about to chuck her phone across the room, when her suddenly phone began to ring again. She assumed that it was Rachel calling her back, so she answered the call. She didn't not wanting to piss off Rachel by ignoring her completely – she knew that Rachel's intentions were good, despite how annoying they might seem.

"Seriously Rachel, I just need one more day to chill out and be by myself. I appreciate the fact that you care but please, leave me alone!" Allison gave the spiel she given Rachel every day for the past four days.

"Uh, this isn't Rachel… if this is a bad time, I can call back."

Allison's eyes grew as wide as saucers at the sound of Chibs' voice. After three days of successfully dodging his calls, she had screwed up her track record in a matter of seconds. As her heart began to palpitate rapidly, she managed to articulate a halfway normal sounding reply, "Um no, that's okay… what's up?"

"I'm at TM right now, and Gemma's been havin a royal fit bout' yer truck sitting in our lot for the past few days. I hate ta' bother ya like this, but I was wonderin if I have yer okay, to start working on it?" Chibs explained with a hint of anxiety present in his voice.

Allison had been so withdrawn into her own world; that she had almost completely forgotten about her truck.

She started work in a matter of days, and taking a bus or a taxi to and from work did not sound appealing. In fact she would rather walk the three miles than take public transportation.

"Shit – uh yeah that'd be great," She blurted out, feeling embarrassed by the fact that she'd become such a cave troll.

"Glad to hear that," Chibs paused to clear his throat, "but there is the small matter of you needing to sign some more papers. Gemma forgot to give you a few forms when you were at TM last."

Allison almost said "_of course that bitch did"_ – but caught herself before the words rolled off of her tongue. Instead she replied, "Alright. Do you need me to fill them out today?"

She silently prayed that the answer was no. Allison wasn't lying when she had said that she needed one more day to collect herself.

"Uh, well how about I bring them by Juice's place tonight after I'm done work?"

"That works for me. See you tonight," Allison quickly responded. She felt a wave of anxiety wash over her at the thought about having to deal with the Scottish biker, in only a matter of hours.

"Aye, goodbye Allison," Chibs closed, before hanging up.

Allison slowly pulled away the phone from her ear, lowered her arm and snapped it shut. She looked down at the coffee table in front of her, which had two drinks on it; a glass of water and a bottle of whiskey. After a few seconds of deliberation, she picked up the glass of water.

She needed to have her wits about her for whenever Chibs decided to show up. There was a very high possibility the he'd bombard her with club and Kozik related questions, so, she needed to be bright enough to defend herself in case the exchange got ugly.

* * *

When Chibs hung up the phone, he let out a weary sigh of relief. The call had gone better a lot than he had expected it to.

He had pictured two scenarios about how the call would go. The first was that Allison, would scream into the receiver to go fuck himself and that he should stop bothering her. The other one was that she'd just simply not answer, like she had for the past few days.

Even though his visit would supposed to be about business, he hoped that he could find out some more information about her relationship to Kozik. Based upon her reaction to casually running into him, she obviously had an issue with the blonde and whatever happened between them wasn't pretty.

Juice wouldn't give him any answers about Allison – asking Kozik was definitely out of the equation – so, Chibs really didn't have any choice but to go directly to the source.

* * *

Filthy Phil sat at Kozik's kitchen table, munching away on the BLT he had made himself for lunch. He had been stuck babysitting Kozik for the past few days, and it was really beginning to stress him out.

Kozik was as about as happy as a lion with a thorn in its paw, to have a club member staying in his house, waiting on him hand and foot. He tried to shoo Phil away at least two dozen times, but each time he stayed.

Phil cooked meals for Kozik, made sure he took his antibiotics on time and also that he didn't drink too much. Above all, he was tasked with making sure that Kozik didn't sneak out and score some dope.

When he was a Prospect, Kozik was one of the few older, patched members whom took the time out to show him the ins and outs of the life. Phil got along with the blonde quite well because they were similar natured: they were both very level headed, hardworking, individuals.

However, Phil was quite intimidated when Opie had delegated the task to him because, when Kozik let his temper go – he really let it go. As far as Phil was concerned, Kozik's temper was almost on par with Happy's.

A distinctively sharp series of knocks from the front door, made Phil all forget about his troubles. With the sandwich still in his hand, he walked through the kitchen, to the living room and opened up the door.

"Hi Gemma," Phil greeted the Queen, before he took a large bite out of his sandwich.

"Any change with him today?" Gemma skipped the formalities and got right down to business.

Phil took a moment to finishing chewing. After he swallowed he replied, "No, no change. I think he's asleep because the same album has been playing for about an hour or so."

Gemma twitched her mouth side to side in indecision. More than anything, she wanted to barge into the house, bang on Kozik's bedroom door until he opened it and give him the third degree about Gimpy. Although, her common sense told her that pressuring Kozik in his state, would just drive him further away from her and the rest of the club.

Gemma crossed her arms across her chest as she said, "okay. Well I am going to send Tara by after she is done work so she can check his stitches. If he says no, you have my full permission to break down that door. Got it?"

Phil stood up straighter as he acknowledged the order, "Yes Ma'am."

Gemma nodded in approval before turning around, walking down the steps and back to her vehicle.

After Phil closed the door, he bowed his head and muttered, "I think I'm gonna need another sandwich…"

* * *

Since moving out to his land, Wayne Unser only ventured into Charming twice a week. The first reason was if he had a chemo or any other appointment, at St. Thomas Hospital. Then second reason was to stop by the post office and pick up his mail.

Having to go to a public office, just to pick up a stack full of bills he couldn't pay; had to be the thing that irked him the most about his wife Della, leaving him a few months ago. He had done nothing his entire life except work his ass off, so he could provide for his money hungry wife and spoiled kids.

How does Della repay him? By kicking him out of the house that _he_ had worked and paid for… She then had to nerve to get some legal beagle to deny him the right to his life savings. To make the blow even lower – she had done this all while he had stage three cancer.

Then there is the matter of his children. Wayne and Della had two girls; Barbara and Glennis. Also they had one boy; William. All three of them still lived in the state of California, and yet, not a single one of them had even bothered to call when they found out that their Father was dying of cancer.

Had he really been that bad of a husband and father?

Yes, he did spend a lot time on the job – but he when he was home, he tried to connect with his family as best he knew how.

As of late, such questions seemed to daunt his mind often. The only thing which seemed dull his guilt was to light a joint… well that, and doing favours for SAMCRO.

Wayne let out a tired sigh and he turned the key to unlock his mailbox. His eyebrows rose in surprise when he saw a large legal sized envelope with CDC, stamped on the front in with red ink. His niece had actually come through and did him the favour after all.

The envelope was his only piece of mail so, after he grabbed it he locked up his box and left the post office. He debated whether or not to open up the envelope in the parking lot, once he had gotten into his pickup truck, but decided against it until he got back to his trailer.

The second Wayne had parked his truck on his property; he made a beeline for one of the wooden patio chairs, positioned in front of the fire pit.

The little voice inside of his head, which was what all that was left of his pathetic excuse for a conscious, warned him to not open up the envelope and mess with Gemma's business. Wayne quickly dismissed the notion, wondering why the hell he'd start caring about his conscious right then.

For pity sake, he had volunteered himself to be an accessory to the murder of a federal agents, only months prior. If Gemma, or the club, would bitch at him for peeking at a file on some random person – well then he'd just look them in the eye at laugh.

"Let's see what skeletons our in your closet, Allison Lowrance…" Wayne said out loud to himself as he flipped over the cover page of Allison's records.

* * *

It took Wayne over an hour to read Allison's incarceration records, from beginning to end. By the time he hit page four, which detailed how her transport to county jail went awry – Wayne needed to take a break to smoke a joint.

When he reached the end of the report, he was literally sick to his stomach.

He wondered how it was possible that once Allison had been released from Chowchilla – she hadn't bought herself an automated weapon and went and gunned down multiple charters of the Sons of Anarchy MC.

Unser's career in law enforcement was miniscule in the grand scheme of the United States justice system, seeing as that he was in charge of a small local department, in a small, redneck, Californian town. But as far as he was concerned, any state or federal agent would agree that as an Old Lady – Allison – had gone above and beyond the call of duty.

It made Wayne, feel like a piece of shit knowing that Gemma, would soon get to read about the young lady's most darkest, volatile, personal moments. His gut churned thinking about the sadistic shit that Gemma would say to Allison once she had read the file.

He knew that the CDC report, which was very black and white in its dictation of Allison's criminal history, didn't paint a full picture about why she made the choices she did. There were probably a lot of personal issues involved as that weren't highlighted in the report.

Wayne also knew that with Allison living in the town same as Kozik, in present day, that trouble was bound to erupt sooner or later – if it hadn't already.

Wayne, also felt very nervous for Juice. According the report, neither Juice nor Allison, compromised the MC during the appeal process. However, knowing how the club operates – he was worried about what might befall Juice inside of Stockton, once Gemma informed Clay of the situation.

Juice hadn't ratted in his official statements, but Unser highly doubted that Juice had openly informed SAMCRO, that he was helping a woman who let the MC get robbed for several years; gain her freedom.

Harbouring such a secret was big no-no, in the world of criminal activity. Hell, even the notion of keeping secrets any secrets from your criminal partners, was taboo all in itself.

It took Wayne two joints and about four shots of tequila, to come to the decision that he would hand over the report to Gemma, after all.

Ultimately he wasn't member of the club, so he really didn't have the right to without critical information – such as the report – from them.

* * *

Tara was surprised to find butterflies fluttering within her stomach, as she pulled into Kozik's driveway. She wasn't dumb; she knew that when Gemma offered to watch Able and Thomas after she had gotten off of work, so somebody could attempt to spy on Kozik.

She couldn't lie to herself, for Tara too was interested in whom this mysterious woman was living in Juice's old house and what her connection was to Kozik.

Although, Tara did have a legitimate excuse to impose on Kozik's privacy – the stitches in his arm needed to be removed. When Gemma had called her the day that Kozik had been attacked, Tara was in such a hurry that she had only grabbed a one self-dissolving suture packs from the hospital supply closet. The rest of the sutures packs were the old fashioned style, which needed to be removed once the wound had healed.

"Here goes nothing," Tara mumbled as she grabbed her medical bag off of the passenger seat, and got out of her SUV. She walked up the three concrete steps which led to the front door, and was about to ring the doorbell when somebody on the inside opened up the door.

Tara was surprised to find herself face to face with, Filthy Phil. "Hi Tara, come on in. Gemma called a little while ago and said that you might be dropping by," he greeted Tara, as he stepped aside and beckoned her in with a hand motion.

She gave him a smile as she stepped into Kozik's home. After she slipped off her boots, she took a quick glance at the house. It lived up to her expectations of what she had pictured it too look like.

The front door brought you straight into the living room. The carpet was dull shade of grey, and the walls were painted plain white. Not much furniture occupied the small space, except a chestnut coloured leather sofa, a mid-sized television mounted the wall, alongside a few Reaper posters and Harley Davidson decorations.

"Uh so, where is he at?" Tara asked Phil, feeling a bit awkward by the way the large man was just standing and staring at her.

Phil began to lead Tara into the house, and down the hallway which intersected the right hand wall of the living room. As he walked, he explained what the situation had been like for the past few days, "don't expect him to talk to you. He has only spoken to me three times in five days. I did hear him complain to himself that his stitches were really beginning to itch, between changing out his music earlier today."

"Okay, thanks for the heads up," Tara replied in a wary, yet friendly tone.

Phil had a last minute thought before they reached the end hallway where Kozik's bedroom was, "Oh yeah, and whatever you do, don't say anything about the mess in there. I did yesterday, and he almost threw his bottle of Jim Beam at my face."

Tara's eyes widened at the statement, "how much has he been drinking?" The last thing she wanted to deal with, was attempting to take sutures out of a drunkard whom was twice her height and three time her weight.

"Nothing today as far as I know. After the incident with me, I have been trying to make sure he stays away from the booze."

Tara nodded, feeling a morsel of relief. She hoped that Kozik hadn't heard any of hers and Phil's discussion over the country music, which was seeping out of the space between the floor and the bedroom door.

Phil felt that Tara was well informed enough on Kozik's condition so – he raised his right fist and pounded on the shut door. "The Doc is here to take out your stitches, Kozik."

About thirty or so seconds pasted, and there was no response from the other side of the door. Tara and Phil glanced at each with identical worried expression.

"Hey the Doc's here to check you out. Open up," Phil announced as he knocked on the door once more.

This time the pair waited a minute, but there was still sound of any type of activity. So, Tara raised a fist to the door and knocked a little less aggressively than Phil had; and spoke in a soothing tone, "Kozik, I am only going to have to bother you for about fifteen minutes. Then Phil and I, will leave you alone again."

Still, there were no signs of movement in the room. Phil thought back to the lecture Gemma had given him at the beginning of the week, about how Kozik had a weakness for the substances, and that he was to make sure Kozik did leave the house without Phil along. In a moment of panic, thinking that Kozik have done just that; Phil put his enormous body mass to good use and smashed open the door.

Tara body jolted in shock at Phil's sudden action, but quickly shrugged it aside when she followed Phil into the bedroom.

_Kozik was not in his room…_

"Kozik?" Phil called out anxiously as he walked through the room to the adjoining bathroom door. His worst fears were confirmed when he saw that the blonde was not in the room, and that the mid-sized window was pulled opened.

"Gemma's gonna murder me…" Phil spoke in disbelief. Of all of the menial, rotten tasks, he had been given over the past two years with the club – babysitting the depressed, ex-junkie, had to be to worst of all.

"Is he-" Tara was about to ask if Kozik was passed out in the bathtub or something, but stopped when she saw the open window. "Oh shit…"

Xxx

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN HE'S NOT THERE?"

Gemma screamed so loudly on the other end of the phone; Phil was surprised that the intensity of the sound didn't somehow implode his cellphone.

"He must have snuck out the bathroom window…" Phil explained in a mousy tone. "Sorry Gemma."

"Jesus Christ, I'm coming over there right now!" Gemma roared before she slammed down the phone.

Phil hung his head as he lowered the phone away from his ear and flipped it closed. He had worked so hard to get his patch, and now he was probably going to have it taken away because Kozik, was likely lying dead in some back alley in Stockton, overdosed on heroin.

"I take it Gemma's on her way," Tara said dryly. She obviously heard the loud conversation through Phil's phone.

Phil looked up at Tara, who was sitting on the opposite corner, of the foot of Kozik's bed. He wanted to spout of some derogatory comment out of stress, but quickly thought the better of it. There was no point in taking his personal frustrations out on her.

"Yeah she is."

Tara nodded, sensing that Phil was quite wound up. After taking a moment to scan the array of boxes, containing various CDs and records scattered throughout the room; Tara got down onto her knees on the floor, and read the label on the box closest to the bed.

_Allison's Music: Country, Travis Tritt – CD_

Curious, Tara shoved the first box aside and slid the larger one directly it. She raised her eyebrows at the label.

_Allison's Music: Country, Merle Haggard – Vinyl _

"Hey Phil, do you know where all of this music came from?" Tara asked as she slowly crawled across the carpet, reading the labels on the rest of the boxes.

Even though the genre of music varied from country, to blues, to big band music; the common denominator was that the boxes were labelled, "_Allison's"_.

Phil let out a sharp wisp of air, "yes I do. The day I took him home, he made me go into his basement and lug up, all _forty-seven boxes."_ He adjusted the way his glasses were sitting on his nose before he complained, "my back still hurts all these days later. I never want to see another box of vinyl for a very long time."

Before Tara could reply, her and Phil's head snapped to the in the direction of the living room as they heard the doorbell being rung repetitively. She immediately got up off of the floor and left the room to go open the door, the person whom she knew was Gemma.

Phil on the other hand, lingered on the bed not wanting to face the wrath of Gemma just yet.

"Alright where the hell is that over-weight louse? I swear to God if Kozik loses his sobriety just because he was too stuffing his face – I'll kill him!" Gemma raged as she barged into the house.

Tara, knowing how frazzled Phil was by the ordeal; grabbed Gemma by the arm and guided her out of the living room, and into the adjoining kitchen.

"I think I know where Kozik may have gone." Tara got right down to the point.

"How?" Gemma asked indignantly.

"Before we called you, Phil and I went out into the garage and saw that Kozik's bike was gone. Then in his bedroom, there are boxes upon boxes of CDs and records that all have the label – _Allison's _– on them."

Gemma didn't need to hear another word – she knew too where Kozik probably was. There was one question on her mind however, "how the fuck can he ride? I thought you said you put seventeen stitches in his ass. If they were ready to be taken out, wouldn't that hurt like hell to straddle his bike?"

Tara raised her eyebrows, not thinking that that was the question Gemma was going to ask.

"I used dissolving sutures in that area…" she curled her upper lip upward in disgust, "seeing his ass once is enough."

Suddenly, the sound of a Harley rumbled from outside. Feeling hopeful, Gemma, Tara, as well as Phil – all ran out onto the driveway. They were all quite relieved when they saw that Kozik was pulling into his driveway.

Kozik didn't even have his helmet off when Gemma, began to chew him out, "where the hell were you!"

"Yeah!" Phil adamantly added in the background.

Kozik took of his helmet, got off of his bike, popped open the carrying compartment on the back of his bike to grab a plastic shopping bag; before he went on an angry rant, "I went to the fucking store, to by some fucking CD's to burn. What the fuck is it with you people? You know what –all of you get the fuck off of my property – even you Phil! I'm sick of this fucking bullshit!"

The raw intensity of his anger stunned the trio for a moment. They knew that Kozik meant what he said. Not wanting to make the situation any worse, Gemma, made a decision for the collective, "Alright, but if we find you O.D. after shooting up fucking dope – it's not going to be on the club's shoulders."

Kozik's ungrateful attitude for all that the club had tried to do for him, rubbed Gemma the wrong way.

"First won't you let me take out your stitches?" Tara spoke up, her medical instincts kicking in.

"No, I already pulled them out yesterday by myself!" Kozik snapped before he pushed through them and stormed into his house, locking the door behind him.

The past few days he had spent the time brainstorming a plan to win Allison over. If he was going to execute it, he couldn't have his every move being monitored by the club.

* * *

As Chibs was pulling into Juice's driveway, he felt felt at ease with the plan he had formulated. He fretted over if this was the right choice or not, for the majority of the day. However, at the end of the day he chose what felt right to him.

He just hoped that the handgun he concealed in the pocket of his kutte, wouldn't freak Allison out. If things went according to plan, he wouldn't have to use it at all...


	10. Plans - Part 2

"Oh come on already, it is 8:34pm. Where the hell could that Scottish bastard be?" Allison exclaimed to herself out loud, as she sat at the kitchen table and munched on some leftover beef chowmein.

Since his call in the afternoon; Allison had managed to peel her ass off of the couch, take a shower, and put on clothes that weren't pajamas.

It was as if God had heard her griping, because a few second later, somebody was pounding on the front door.

Allison dropped her fork, got up, and headed toward the front door.

"Is that you Chibs?"

"Aye," Chibs deep voice rung out from the other side of the door

Allison let out a sigh of relief. A part of her was a bit paranoid that it may be Gemma or that noisy Sheriff coming to bother her again.

As Chibs stood on the porch and waited to for the door to open; he felt his palms start to become clammy as his heartrate increased. He knew that what he was about to ask of her was completely out of line in normal circumstances. However, after dwelling on all of the little bits of information he had accumulated over the past week – he knew needed to start the discussion with Allison. It was for her safety once whatever secrets her and Juice were hiding, came out in to the open.

When the door swung open Chibs, opened his mouth to apologize for stopping by so late, but found himself tongue tied when he laid eyes upon Allison.

She was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans and one of those tank tops that flowed out, instead of clinging onto the skin. The top was lime green and was made out of sheer material. It wasn't completely see-through, but Chibs could still see the outline of her bra. Her hair was let down and had a slightly tousled look to it.

Allison saw that Chibs was checking her out, and arched an eyebrow at him. She crossed her arms across her chest as inquired, "Are coming in, or are you just going to stand there all night at look at my breasts?"

Chibs' eyes widened, as he felt his cheeks become warm with embarrassment. It didn't seem like he was staring at her for that long.

"Aye, I'm sorry lassie – didn't mean to take a gander for more than a quick second."

Allison fought back the urge to laugh. She stepped aside and beckoned him inside with a wave of her hand. Chibs complied and stepped inside.

It was his turn to raise his eyebrows as he scanned the living room. There were pizza boxes, Chinese takeout containers, and greasy used napkins scattered throughout the space. Also an assortment empty whiskey and beer bottles were lying about. He knew that if Juice could see the disarray his house was in – he'd probably go into a full fledge panic attack.

"Yeah, I kind of have been taking it easy these past few days…" Allison commented, noting the expression on Chibs' face. "Usually I am an exemplary housekeeper, but, I've been a bit off my game..."

"Yer talking to an experienced bachelor here, love – a wee bit of mess don't bother me," Chibs replied with a light chuckle. He knew that she was referring to the whole Kozik ordeal, however, he knew better than to bring up the subject right off the bat.

Allison smiled, happy that the pig pen she'd created for herself hadn't caused him to go running out the door.

"So, did you bring whatever it is I need to sign?" She asked getting right down to business.

"Indeed I did," Chibs said as he reached inside his kutte pocket and pulled out the pieces of paper.

Allison grabbed the papers and frowned when she saw the vast amount of information she needed to fill out. It would take her at least twenty minutes.

Chibs chuckled when he saw the look an Allison's face while she glanced over the forms. "It's like yer signing yer bloody life away, if ya get into an accident in the state of California."

"Ain't that the truth," Allison replied dryly. She realized that while she filled out the forms, she couldn't just very well leave Chibs standing awkwardly by the front door. So, she pointed with her thumb over her left shoulder and asked, "Have you had supper yet? Because I got a bunch of leftover Chinese food, if you want."

"That'd be great," Chibs replied in a grateful tone. He hadn't eaten since noon, so it was safe to say that he was starving.

They then proceeded to the kitchen, where Allison assumed her original position sitting down in front of her plate of food. She shoved it off to the side so that there would be room for the papers.

"I put little _x's_ by everything ya need to sign," Chibs explained as he stood beside her.

"Thanks," Allison replied as she began to start signing. Without looking up from the papers, she instructed, "Rest of the food is in the fridge. I'm assuming you know where the plates and stuff are."

"Aye, I've been to Juice's place more than once."

Chibs grabbed some food, heated it up in the microwave, and then sat down beside Allison. He ate in silence, while she filled out the forms at lightning speed. By the time he was halfway through his plate; Allison threw down her pen, shoved the papers aside, and resumed eating her own meal.

"All done – man that's a fuck ton of paperwork for one vehicle."

"I'm just glad I don't have to file all of that junk," Chibs laughed. After a brief pause to swallow his mouth full of rice, he told her, "Thanks, fer the food. I was just bout dyin of hunger."

"You're welcome," Allison smiled.

After a rather awkward silence, Chibs decided that it was probably the right time to ease into the discussion that he so desperately wanted to have with her.

"Allison, you seem like a level headed gal – but what happened three days ago with Kozik urges me to think otherwise." Even though his heart was pounding wildly, Chibs was pleased that the opening line he had been rehearsing in his head all day, came out sounding natural and not too pushy.

After Allison sucked in a deep breath to calm her sudden onset of nerves; she answered in a cool tone, "If I didn't know myself – I'd say your observation is correct."

Her answer wasn't that Chibs had been expecting, which caused him to be tongue tied for a brief moment.

Before he had a chance to gather his thoughts and articulate a reply, Allison spoke once more, "You here to grill me on the club's behalf, or are you running an errand for that noisy old bitch, Gemma?"

Chibs raised his eyebrows, shocked by Allison's forewardness. He casually set his fork down onto this plate, and leaned back in his chair. He folded his arms across his chest and stared directly into Allison's eyes. From years of experience with this type of situation, he knew that the sooner a person looked away; the weaker a person they were.

Allison stared right back at the Scotsman and didn't even flinch. After a solid minute Chibs decided that Allison wasn't going to crack, so he willingly bowed out of the competition, because he knew that it could go on for a _long_ time.

The air was thick and heavy with tension, as Chibs considered how best to reply to her questions. There were two options on how to proceed in his mind. The first being, he could simply answer her questions outright. The downside to that approach would result in a very lengthy pattern of Allison asking an assortment of questions, until they eventually broached the main point of the discussion.

The second option was for Chibs to simply speak his mind, and ask what happened between her and Kozik. Chibs was rather exhausted from his day tending to club business and working in the garage, so, the second option sounded more appealing.

He let out a sigh and took the plunge, "Gemma had nothin to do with me bein here. I am also not here on the club's behalf. I have been doing this long enough to know that the way ya reacted to seeing Kozik, means that he hurt ya in the past… and it was bad. So please Allison – even though ya don't know me – let me help ya out."

Allison nodded, slightly taken aback by how correct Chibs' assumption was.

She bit her lower lip in a nervous twitch, before she asked, "Why the hell do you want to help me Scotty? For fuck's sake you don't even know me. I am just some bitch that showed up out of the blue, with connections to the MC that you can't specify – and now you want to protect me from one of your fellow, _brothers_? What do you think he did to me?"

"I don't know what happened between Kozik and ya. What I do know through the club though, is that he is spiraling downward, in a flaming tailspin. Runnin into ya at TM triggered something within him. I can tell that you are scared of him and if I had to choose sides – the Catholic thing to do would be to protect ya from Kozik."

A chill formed at the base of Allison's skull and wriggled down her spine which gave her the shivers. She closed her eyes and let out a big sigh before calmly confirming what she already suspected, "You talked to Juice – didn't you?"

"Aye," Chibs replied in a reserved tone. He wanted to wait and see if Allison would spill more information, than just the ambiguous pack of generalities which Juice had fed him before.

Allison sat up straight in her chair to portray a demeanor of confidence before she spoke, "Look Filip, I'm sure that Juice didn't tell you anything except a bunch of vague statements, which would have you running around like a chicken with its head cut off, while you look for answers." She paused for a moment and looked down at her lap. A reflective expression appeared in her eyes as she continued on, "Juice is a man with some issues – there is no denying it. I have known him for several years, and know in my heart that underneath the mental torment that has plagued him since his Mom passed away, when he was fourteen years old; there a good soul. The bond that I share with Juice goes far beyond Sons of Anarchy ties…"

Chibs furrowed his brow at Allison, not sure of where she was going with her story. Despite his confusion – the clarity of her spoken words made him believe that she was speaking directly from her heart. He leaned forward, outstretched his right hand, and entwined his fingers with Allison's left hand which was resting on the table.

The warmth and tenderness of Chibs' touch caused Allison to look up from her lap, and gaze directly into his deep brown eyes. He gave her hand a firm, yet still gentle squeeze, before he said, "I get what yer sayin Allison. Now is not the right time fer the truth about whatever secrets ya and Juice have to come out. I am old enough ta know that Kozik somehow fits into the equation. I don't know Kozik well enough to know what his next move might be. Although, Gem and some others had quite a scare today, thinking that Kozik went and got high and then tried to come and see ya here. I shudder to think what might have happened if he had made it here…"

Allison's breath hitched at thought of what might have happened if Kozik had actually shown up at the house. She never ever saw him high, so she hadn't the slightest clue as to how he would act, or what he would do.

The way Chibs spoke about Kozik, told Allison that Kozik was just as distraught by their chance encounter as she was.

As much as she harbored negative feelings toward him, it would make her very sad to hear that Kozik had lost his sobriety because of her. She knew how much he struggled with staying sober when the stresses of life became overwhelming. He admitted to her once, that not a day goes by where the thought of getting high, doesn't cross his mind.

One thing she had always admired about Kozik, was that despite his addictive personality – he realized that he had too much too lose if he were to slip up and go back to using the hard drugs.

Pushing Kozik out of her thoughts, she returned her attention to Chibs and asked, "What now, Filip?"

A small smirk involuntarily formed across Chibs' face because of the way Allison kept addressing him by his given name.

On some unspoken level, he knew that he had got his intended point across to Allison. So, he reluctantly let go of Allison's hand and reached into the pocket of his kutte and slowly pulled out his gun.

When Allison saw that the object Chibs was gripping was a handgun, she pushed her chair away from the table and stood up.

"What are doing Filip?" She demanded. The element of fright was present in her tone.

"I ain't gonna hurt ya, Allison," Chibs replied quickly, realizing that pulling out the gun without explaining himself beforehand was a dumb mistake. He set it down on the table, and raised both of his hands in the air to show her that he meant what he had said. "Please have a seat Allison –I promise that yer in no harm. I have a proposition fer ya."

Allison found herself genuinely surprised by Chibs' statement. There was a soft shimmer in his eyes, which made her believe that he wasn't trying to dupe her.

"Wha – why would you want to help me? And what exactly do you think I need protecting from?"

"I think you know just as well as I do. I know I don't know ya well enough, to have the right ask why you were locked up. I also don't have the right to ask why Juice is so adamant about SAMCRO leaving ya alone… so I won't. From the observations I've made though, I gather that the MC – probably the Tacoma charter – played a signifigant role as to why you were locked up. I also suspect that Kozik and ya, were involved for a time, and he abandoned ya when ya went inside. I know that the man has a rather nasty temper when he wants to, so –I want ya ta keep this gun close for the next few days. It's really obvious that Juice cares a great deal about you, so as my _brother_, it's my duty to protect ya in his absence."

Allison was at a loss for words after Chibs had finished saying his piece. For so many years, she had this image in her brain that any man wearing a Sons of Anarchy kutte, was nothing but a piggish, deceptive, piece of lying shit. Now, the man sitting before her had her questioning her concreted bias. Quite frankly – it scared the shit out of her.

"I uh – um," Allison struggled to find words to describe the tornado of questions that were swirling around in her brain.

Should she tell Chibs about Paul? If so, would the knowledge that her ex-husband was a club traitor change his attitude toward her?

Was Kozik really as bad off as Chibs had described? Was she really in danger?

Those questions, and many more made Allison freeze up.

"Aye, I understand – I've overstepped my place," Chibs stated in a low tone as he stood up, thinking that he had enraged or offended her. "I'll let myself out."

Allison stood in the kitchen and watched Chibs walked out of the kitchen, through the hallway and living room to the front door. Just as he was about the open the front door, his postured straightened out as if he had a last minute thought.

He spun around and added one last comment, "I overheard Gem talking today, that she has a club friend – and ex-Sheriff by the name Unser – looking in ta yer records. I'm gonna keep tabs on the process of it, and I'll let ya know if Unser comes through with her request."

And with that, Chibs left the house, got onto his bike, and drove away.

Allison just stood still, with her mouth gaping, wondering what the hell had just happened.

* * *

Wayne Unser groaned in frustration as he set down the fine tip black marker in hand, on to his kitchen table.

It felt like somebody has sucked all moisture out of his eye. Also, the cords of muscle in his neck and back burned with fury from him leaning over the table, for such a long period of time.

It had taken him almost four hours to complete the task. Once he had but he flipped through the pages of the report though – he decided that it was all worth it.

When he gave Gemma, Allison's records tomorrow morning, she will not even suspect that he had tampered with them...

* * *

As dawn early light began to dimly shine into Kozik's bedroom, he felt welcome sense of resolve. For the first time in days, he didn't feel like crawling out of his skin because of the anxiety and grim thoughts plaguing his mind.

It had taken him nine and a half hours to upload all of Allison's CD's onto his laptop, and burn his favorite albums onto discs to keep for himself.

Step one of his plan was now done. After getting some sleep – the next step would be to pack himself a bag, gas up his truck, and stop by the clubhouse to let his _brothers_ know that he needed a week away from everything. He would then hit the highway and head up to Spokane, Washington.

When he returned, the surprise he'd have for Allison would give her no choice – but to let him explain all of the choices he had made six and half years ago.

Then maybe, just maybe… the love of his life would consider giving them a chance for their Part II.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for those of you who have followed/favorited this fic. I hope to update soon. **

**Thanks for reading and please leave a review! **


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I only own my OC's and anything you don't recognize from the show. Kurt Sutter own the rest.**

* * *

If Allison had gotten more than five hours of sleep, that would be stretching the truth. Most of the night she had laid in her bed, and pondered about the odd exchange her and Chibs had had in the kitchen.

Chibs had repetitively mentioned the he felt it was necessary for him to try and protect her. But the question Allison had was – what did he think she needed protecting from? How much did he really know about her situation?

He had out right said that he was scared that Kozik may try to seek her out. Also, he mentioned SAMTAC briefly – but other than that – he was rather vague in his meaning.

She kept going back and forth in her mind about whether or not Chibs, had found out that she was the ex-wife of the infamous, Paul Magagnoli.

If he and the rest of SAMCRO did know – they would have surely approached her by this point, and interrogated her as to how she had gained her freedom. It would only be logical for the club to be suspicious that she had ratted and got a deal; or agreed to work on the outside for law enforcement.

Allison wasn't naïve – she knew that all of the probable scenario's she was paranoid about would happen eventually. After all, no sane person would want to live in a small town, where the presence of the MC was very prominent.

But she made her choice to live in Charming, so that she could work at and receive a decent wage which would enable her to begin to rebuild her life.

Despite the thick skin she had developed from dealing with Paul, and living in a maximum security penitentiary for several years – she was still scared about her uncertain future.

She found solace in the fact though, that being scared of the unknown meant that she just like every other human on the planet.

It was a natural reaction, and there was nothing to be ashamed of.

When Allison had awoken in the morning she felt completely revitalized, despite the small amount of sleep she had received. She simply realized that there was no point in ripping her hair out, thinking about all of the negative outcomes of her situation.

There was one matter that she knew she needed to attend to right away; which was exactly why she was once again sitting at a table in the visitation hall of Stockton prison.

She was kicking herself in the butt the entire drive out to the prison, for not thinking about how her presence in Charming would impact Juice, in regards to his relations with SAMCRO. If he was put in any danger for being accused to help out a traitor – she'd never be able to forgive herself.

When the guards had finally escorted Juice to the table which she was sitting at; Allison's stomach plummeted at the sight of the anxious expression plastered across Juice's face.

After the guards had freed Juice from all of the shackles, he folded his hand and rested them on top of the table.

"This was pleasant morning surprise. It got me out of eating the disgusting pork and beans they were serving for breakfast." Juice greeted her with his usual goofy smile.

"You're welcome. That was the breakfast I hated the most when I was inside too," Allison replied with her nose scrunched upward in revulsion.

"So uh, Chibs stopped by to have a chat with me about you a few days ago," Juice stated, beating Allison to the punch.

"I know," Allison murmured softly while she her head in confirmation. "That's kind of why I am here to see you today… I had quite the interesting encounter with Scotsman myself."

Juice felt his stomach begin to churn. He got the distinct impression that trouble could be brewing, based upon Allison's heavy tone.

"What happened? I hope he didn't raise his voice at you, because if he did I swear to God I'll –"

"No, nothing bad happened," Allison interrupted Juice. "I think he and Gemma might be close to figuring out my past connection to the MC, and know that you are privy to the details of it."

"Wait, why do you think that? Did they contact SAMTAC or something?" Juice asked Allison, while he gazed at her in an analytical fashion.

"Not that I'm aware of. He mentioned that Gemma had some friend of the club that goes by the name of Unser, looking into my prison records."

After processing Allison's statement, Juice's face immediately turned into one big frown.

If Gemma had Unser on the issue, it would only be a matter of days – maybe even hours – until the ugly truth reared its head.

He knew that Gemma was going to turn into a cross between, Attila the Hun and Medusa, when she found out exactly who Allison was. A physical brawl or telling Allison at gunpoint that she needs to get the hell out of Charming – was definitely a likely outcome.

"Holy shit," Juice exclaimed a bit too loudly, which caused a few head to snap in his direction. Ignoring the stares; he went on to frantically tell Allison, "Unser used to be the Sheriff for Charming P.D, until they were shut down and the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department took over. He was on SAMCRO's payroll for years and is very loyal to the club – _especially_ to Gemma. This is bad Allison. As soon as she reads those records, she is going to insist that the club go on a witch hunt and run you out of town. Nobody in the club or connected to the club, know about how I helped you out. I gotta tell Clay and the rest of the guys about the testimonies I gave, before they guys on the outside inform Clay and Jax about it. If they don't hear it from me beforehand, they're going to think I ratted. I was planning on doing it sometime soon since your first visit – but the time just hasn't been right."

"Alright, well go now and do it while it's still chow time. And if you can, call me tonight on my cell and tell me how everything went," Allison urged. She really hated to see Juice so worried.

"Okay," Juice quickly replied as he stood up, which signalled to the awaiting guards that the visit was over.

Once the guards had reattached his shackles and led him away from the table; Allison let out a deep sigh full of worry. She hoped that Juice wouldn't be harassed to badly by the club.

However, Allison was secretly relived that their conversation was so brief, that the topic of Kozik did not come up. She knew that she had to tell Juice, that the neighbour she was going planning to elope with, was Kozik.

She was very scared to though, because she was pretty sure that Juice was going to lose his shit when he finds out that the man who had screwed her over, was actually one of his fellow _brothers_.

* * *

After Juice had left Allison, the guards escorted him back to his cell – much to his dismay. Rodrigo was still in the chow hall, so Juice was left alone with his worries.

He began to pace back and forth across the small cell, as his thoughts ran wild.

He wondered how the hell he was going to bring up the subject of Allison, to Clay and the others. He knew that they would probably be furious with him. But what he didn't know, was if Clay or Jax already knew about Allison's presence in, Charming.

If Gemma had honed in on her – the answer to his question was most likely yes. Juice knew that Gemma had no filter when it came to that sort of thing.

Juice was also made at himself because he forgot to ask Allison why she randomly decided to assault Kozik. The mystery had been driving him bonkers since Chibs had come to see him.

He had put their connections to SAMTAC together – but that wasn't enough.

Juice remember Allison telling him that she only bothered to spend time around SAMTAC when there was a medical emergency, and they needed her nursing skills –f and that was only if their regular doctor wasn't available. She never went to any club parties or family gathers that he was aware of so, the medical connection wasn't enough either.

Allison had a vicious temper when she wanted too, but she only unleashed it under two conditions: the first being that she had to know the individual very well. The second condition was that the person had to genuinely deserve it.

Juice couldn't remember Allison ever mentioning Kozik over the years, so for her to flip out like Chibs had described was completely out of character.

A growl of frustration escape Juice's throat. He knew that his hope for the last few months of his sentence to be uneventful was no longer a reality.

* * *

An obnoxiously high pitched noise gradually brought Kozik out of his deep slumber. When he finally realized that it was his cell phone ringing, his eyes slowly fluttered open.

He lazily wiped the sleep out of his eyes with the back of his hands. Once his vision came into focus, the rest of his senses started to wake up as well and he realized that there was a stream of drool seeping out of the right corner of his mouth.

"That's fucking attractive," he muttered in disgust, as he wiped the drool off of his face with the back of his hand.

He rolled from his back, onto his left side, and grabbed his cellphone for the nightstand beside his bed. Right before he was about to answer the call, the phone stopped ringing.

He saw that whoever was calling was bothering to leave a voicemail. After a few seconds, his phone beeped with the message that he had one new voicemail. When he opened up his phone, he sighed when he saw that the caller was Opie.

Kozik really didn't feel like talking to anybody. However, after yesterday's events with Gemma, Tara, and Phil – he knew that he really should to check in with the club. Otherwise, it would be inevitable that somebody would stop by to see if he was okay.

Opie and the rest of the club could wait for a few more hours though, because he needed to take a shower, pack a bag, and gas up his Dodge for his impending road trip.

But before Kozik could start his day, there was an important call he needed to make. After he dialed the number, he rolled back over onto his back while he waited for the person to pick up on the other end of the line.

After four rings, a female voice answered, "Good afternoon, you've reached K&amp;A Garage. How may I help you?"

"Hiya Sarah, I was wondering if I could talk to Nathan for a moment." Kozik greeted the woman in friendly tone.

"Sure, I'll go get him. I'm just going to put you on hold while I go and fetch him," Sarah replied.

A minute later, Kozik was taken off hold and he heard somebody pick up the phone again.

"Hello?"

Kozik couldn't help but to grin from ear to ear at the sound of his brother's voice. "How's big bro doing?"

"Manny! I'm doing pretty good – can't really complain too much. How are things in Charming?" Nathan chimed, happy to hear from his brother.

"Thing are –" Kozik struggled to find the right words. After a brief pause, he verbalized what he was thinking, "that's a really loaded question dude."

"Are you okay?" Nathan's tone suddenly became more serious.

"Uh, depends on your definition of okay… Look I was thinking about driving down to see you this week. It's better if I explain what's been going on, face to face."

"Yeah sure that'd be great. We are overdue for a visit anyways – it's been over a year since we've seen each other. I'm sure Sarah and the kids would love to see you again too." Nathan happily agreed to the plan .

Despite his excitement to see his little brother – Nathan was also quite worried about him. The melancholy undertone in his voice was a big warning that he definitely wasn't himself. Moreover, his tone had a certain tautness to it which clued Nathan into the fact that his brother was really struggling with his sobriety.

"Great," Kozik chuckled lightly; relieved that his brother wasn't against him coming to visit. "So I'm going head out of town around four. I'll probably drive through the night, so you could expect me in the late morning – if that's okay."

"Sounds good to me. I'll see you tomorrow, Manny."

"Bye," Kozik replied before ending the call.

Kozik knew that Nathan was in for one hell of a surprise tomorrow…

* * *

Opie was sitting on a stool at the bar in clubhouse, enjoying a beer and a cigarette. Besides a few Croweaters cleaning up, there was nobody else around, which was perfectly fine with him. He rarely had any piece during the day, since Clay, Jax, Juice, Tig, and Happy went inside – seeing as that he was the acting President of SAMCRO.

Day to day business for the club was quite slow though. After the whole Russian ordeal – day to day business for SAMCRO fell into a routine which allowed them to catch their breath. It was a nice change of pace after all of the events from the past few years.

For Opie the change of pace meant, focusing on his children and his relationship with Lyla. He obviously loved his club, but after Donna's murder – he knew that he needed to focus on building a stable atmosphere for his family.

He owed it to his children – they had suffered more than any child ever should, all because of his ties to the MC.

Opie looked up from the ashtray on the bar in front of him, at the sound of the outside door opening. A blast of sunlight temporarily blinded him for a moment, until the door closed shut. When he regained his vision, Opie was surprised to see that the newcomer was Kozik.

Opie's first thought was that the blonde looked like complete and total crap.

The first thing he noticed was that Kozik's hair wasn't spiked upward with gel into its usual style of a neater, more calculated version of bedhead. Instead, Kozik was sporting the real thing; tangled mats of hair and everything. Also, there were dark puffy bags underneath his eyes, thanks to sleep deprivation. A blond stubbly beard covered his face.

Opie couldn't help but to raise his eyebrows at Kozik's fashion choice. Literally every time he had ever seen the Kozik, the blonde always wore the same ensemble of jeans and boots. His shirt consisted of only sleeveless, or flannel button down shirts. If it was a colder day, he would wear a plain black or grey, SAMCRO hoodie.

On this particular day; he wore light grey baggy sweat pants, with a pair of plain black runners and a plain black t-shirt. The fact that Kozik was not wearing his kutte, was what concerned Opie the most about his appearance.

No club member should ever show up to the club house without wearing his kutte – it was basically the equivalent of blasphemy, in the MC world.

Opie immediately sprung to his feet and began to walk towards Kozik, who by this point, had spotted Opie and was also heading toward him.

"Hey man, it's good to see you," Opie greeted, as he and Kozik met up and stopped walking.

Kozik bit his lower lip and started to rock his body slightly in the way he always did, when he felt nervous or anxious. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he had no idea about his nervous gestures.

"Yeah, sure…" Kozik's voice trailed off unconfidently.

Opie narrowed his eyes, and at gazed at the blonde in a scrutinizing fashion – the man looked as wound up as a watch spring. Most of the time, Kozik was one of the most laid back members of SAMCRO. Therefore, it was perfectly normal that the observation made Opie's brain jump to all sorts of conclusions about why Kozik was acting the way he was.

The most plausible conclusion was that he was either really struggling with the urge to go and get high, or – he was completely strung-out already.

Opie didn't know Kozik well enough to feel comfortable asking him about that sort of thing. So instead, he asked, "Where's your kutte, brother? You know the rules – club members need to wear it at all times inside the clubhouse."

"I'm not planning on staying. I just came in here to tell you that I need to take a week off… If I stay around here, I know that I am definitely not going to be able to remain sober," Kozik explained.

Opie's eyebrows shot in up in response to Kozik's statement. The usually protocol if a _brother_ needed to go off the grid for personal reasons, was for the member to bring it up in church so that the rest of his members knew what was going on. Kozik definitely wasn't a new patch – he knew how the rules worked.

On the other hand, Opie could tell that Kozik meant what he had said about remaining sober. At the moment, SAMCRO was a small as a charter could be to function. It wouldn't be good at all, if they suddenly lost Kozik because he was too busy chasing the dragon to be a part of the club.

"Where are you planning on going?" Opie needed more information before he could decide if he should crack down on Kozik. His missing presence was starting to really become a problem in regards to the club, as well as at the garage.

Kozik folded his arms across his chest before he answered, "Down to Santa Monica. I've got an older brother there that I haven't talked to for a long time."

Kozik had a look of pure determination in his eyes, which told Opie that there was no point in arguing with him. The man had his mind set on driving down to Santa Monica – and there was no way in hell he was going to let anybody convince him to not to go.

"Alright, I'll let the others know. The club can manage until you get back – you are no use to us if you are not fully invested in what we do. Gemma on the other hand, will probably want to squeeze your balls in a vice when she finds out that you've taken off."

"Yeah I know man, but this is just something that I got to do," Kozik nodded, becoming increasingly irritated with Opie's resistance and posturing.

He would have gotten pissed if Opie would have put up more of a fight though, because it would have been really hypocritical. According to what Kozik had heard from some of the other SAMCRO members; Opie was in a very similar place as he presently was, after Donna was murdered.

"I guess I'll see you in a week then. Hopefully when you get back, your mind will clearer. We've missed your input around the table lately," Opie said truthfully.

"Thanks dude," Kozik muttered before he spun around on his heels, and made a beeline for the door. He walked as fast as he could to his parked truck, without actually jogging. Thankfully, everybody on the lot was too preoccupied to notice him so; he was able to leave without having to explain himself to anybody else.

He peeled out of the parking and sped through Charming until he reached the highway. Once he was a few miles outside of Charming – Kozik felt a very surprising, yet welcome sense of relief.

For this one week, the serious life he had built for himself as a member of the Sons of Anarchy didn't exist. He didn't bring along his bike, his kutte, or even a simple handgun. Except for a few of his tattoos, there was no way for the average person to tell that he belonged to the MC.

He was ready to right the wrongs of his past – and nothing was going to get in his way…

* * *

Allison's leg bobbed up and down rapidly while she sat at the kitchen table, and stared at down her cellphone on the table. She was waiting for Juice's call to tell her how everything went with him talking to Clay.

Minutes turned into an hour; and one hour turned into several. Before she knew it, it was had been four hours. Once she had finally decided that enough was enough; she picked up her phone and dialed a number.

After a few rings, Allison heard Chibs' distinct accent through her receiver, "Hello? I didn't expect ta hear from ya again – especially at midnight."

Allison felt a pang of embarrassment at tiredness of his voice. She hadn't realized that it had gotten so late.

"I'm sorry for calling you so late, but I just really wanted to say that I am sorry for how I reacted last night. I know your intentions were good. If you are willing, I'd like to take you up on your offer last week for a drink," Allison paused for moment to get a hold of her nerves and steady her voice before finishing. "I'll try to give you answers for some of your questions… and it'd also be nice to maybe have a friend here in, Charming."

There was a rather long period of silence before Chibs cleared his throat and responded, "Aye, anything ya want lass. A drink would be good. I don't know when I'll be off work tomorrow, so how about I text you with a time and a place?"

"Sure, that sounds good to me," Allison agreed. The warmth in Chibs' voice quashed any worries she had about if he'd want to talk to her again or not.

"Aye, goodnight Allison. Sleep well."

* * *

**A/N: Yay a relatively quick update! **

**I know that Allison's call to Chibs seems totally out of the blue, compared her attitude in previous chapters – but don't fret – it'll all be explained in the next chapter! **

**Also in the next chapter, Kozik visits with his brother; Unser finally gives Gemma the report; and Allison and Chibs have a bit of intoxicated fun ;) **

**Oh yeah, and if you guys have any ideas of what the heck I should title this chapter, please feel free to contact me – I am totally stumped on this! O_o**

**Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my story. It would really mean a lot to me if you leave a review! **


	12. Author's Note

**My Dear Readers,**

**I would just like to let you know that I have not abandoned this story. Real life and being a college student got the way of my creative time, in a big way. I am now in my easiest, last semester of college and have decided it's finally time to continue this story.**

**Thank you so much to the many, many people who have reviewed, followed and favorited this story since March, 2015! I hope that you will still want to continue this ride with me, and find out how Allison learns to live on the outside!**

**Stayed tuned, and expect a new chapter within 1-2 weeks.**

**With Love,**

**CrazyCatLady2.0**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12 – Freedom of the Road

* * *

Wayne Unser sighed as he stared at the vast array of office supplies, hung up and displayed on the shelves before him.

This wasn't his first time he had come to, _Charlie's Charming Office Emporium, _to buy supplies for the task before him.

Several times when he was still employed for the Charming Police Department – back when it still existed – he had bought the exact same materials that he had come to buy today. In fact, he had made such a purchase so many times that he didn't even need to write down a shopping list.

The older he got, the more he hated making his usual purchase. When he retired, he had hoped that these shopping trips would be behind him.

At the end of the day though, he was cop and would never stop being one until the day he died. So, until the day rolls around when his only use is for him to become food for the worms – he would keep on making these trips.

* * *

Kozik was smiling like a child when the large black sign with green lettering, that read, _K&amp;A Garage: Custom Motorcycle Building and Automobile Garage _came into view.

After several hours, he had finally made it to his destination. He was hyped up on enough sugary energy drinks and greasy fast food, that his indescribable exhaustion didn't even affect him.

It only took about thirty seconds after he had parked his truck in a stall between the garage office and the actual garage, for his brother to appear. Kozik climbed out of his truck and walked towards Nathan. When they met up, they immediately pulled each other into a tight embrace.

"Glad you're here, Manny. It's been way too long," Nathan told Kozik, as slapped his on the back.

"I'm happy to be here, bro," Kozik replied as the two men broke the hug.

"How was your drive?"

"Long, but really relaxing," Kozik bit his lower lip in nervousness. "It actually feels really good to be away from Charming, and the club."

Nathan's heart skipped a beat. Never in a million years would he have thought that he would ever hear Manny say that he enjoyed being away from the MC. Despite his shock; his facial expression remained positive as he replied, "Well, everybody needs time away from the daily grind occasionally."

Manny nodded in agreement, wondering if Nathan knew just how true his remark was.

"You look really beat brother. How about you go back to the house and sack out for a while? Sarah won't be home with the kids until four o'clock." Nathan suggested.

As much as Kozik wanted to visit with his brother, he knew that the second he hit a soft surface, he'd be out like a light. After letting out a disappointed sigh, he agreed, "Alright, but tonight we have a shit load of catching up to do."

"At least!" Nathan chuckled. "You remember how to get there, right?"

"Totally, dude."

"Okay well see you tonight," Nathan said as he pulled his brother into a hug once more.

"Sounds good dude," Kozik replied. He didn't realize how freeing it felt to of Charming, until he saw his brother.

Hopefully once he told Nathan about Allison – the remaining weight hanging off of his shoulders would completely dissipate.

* * *

After Wayne made a stop back at this trailer to drop off his office supplies, he reluctantly made his way over to TM. As he geared his pickup truck into park, his nerves started to kick in a little bit. The impending tantrum that Gemma was sure to throw would be at the very least, terrifying.

When he got out of his truck, he quickly scanned the compound with his eyes. He was relieved to see that it was pretty much empty. A few if the hang arounds working at the garage but other than that it was deserted.

He walked across the lot to Gemma's office. He let himself in the open door without so much as a knock.

"I've got what you wanted, Gemma," he announced himself, as Gemma looked up from her computer monitor.

"Is that the gimp's file?" Gemma asked eagerly as she sprung to her feet, and grabbed the brown legal envelope from Wayne's hand.

"If you mean Allison Lowrance, then yes," Wayne replied. He narrowed his eyes at Gemma in confusion and asked, "Gimp?"

As Gemma ripped open the envelope, she explained without even looking up from what she was doing. "Her legs look like she was on the wrong end of a medieval torture device."

Wayne scrunched his eyebrow in confusion, making a mental note of Gemma's statement for later. He then launched into the explanation that he had been rehearsing to himself, before he drove into town see Gemma.

"It looks like most of the information was wiped from her file a few days ago. Most of the charges were cleared except for that one imperfect self defense charge. I asked for more, but I was too late Gemma. I'm sorry," Wayne lied through his teeth.

Gemma gripped the paper until her knuckles were white, and glared at the ex-sheriff in derision. She was trying to read his body language and see if he was lying to her. She was unsuccessful however, as Wayne's stone cold expression didn't falter.

"I can see that. So there really was nothing else in that file. Don't lie to me, Wayne."

"I swear on my Mother's grave," Wayne replied in a rather sardonic way.

"See what else you can dig up on this bitch. All this told me was that she was locked up because she killed somebody, whose name is not even listed!" Gemma demanded.

"I'll see what I can do. But I really don't know why you care so much," Wayne decided to pry.

"You really expect me to let this outsider just move into Juice's house, without me checking into who she is? Juice has been here for years, and has never mentioned this bitch once. Something is fishy, Wayne."

"Right," Wayne nodded, knowing that arguing further would only go nowhere and cause more problems. "I'll see what I can do."

Gemma nodded in agreement and turned back around to her computer.

Wayne took that as his cue to leave, so he made his exit and headed back to his truck.

He was pleased that the interaction had gone just as he had expected it too. Now that he had got one over on Gemma, he could begin dissecting the pages of testimonies, reports, letters of appeal that were included in Allison's file.

When he skimmed it over initially, he wasn't too surprised to find that Allison was a former old lady of a SAMTAC member, and that the marriage ended badly. The one account he read about how Allison had to submit to months of abuse due to _"meddling with Mr. Maganoli's business affairs"_, made him sick to his stomach. Just that one story, combined with his years of experience dealing with gang violence told him that there was way more to the story than what was documented in court. It was his mission to find the missing pieces to the puzzle before anybody else got hurt.

* * *

Kozik woke up with a start on his brother's couch to the sound of children giggling and little feet clambering into the front door. He had been out like a light for the past eight hours.

"Uncle Herman!" The two voices of his niece's rung out simultaneously as they charged toward the couch where he was laying.

Just as Kozik has sat up, he was fiercely hugged by his nieces. He couldn't help but to chuckle. He was glad that even though it had been more than a year since he'd visited, that they still remembered who he was.

"Mommy said that you were going to be here, and here you are!" Seven-year-old Bonnie, stated very happily as the trio broke their embrace.

"Uncle Herman, look at what I get to leave out for the Tooth fairy tonight!" Five-year-old Adeline beamed as she produced a small tooth from the back pocket of her pink overalls. "Isn't it cool?"

Before Kozik could have the chance to answer; a serious expression overtook Bonnie's face as she stated, "Gregory in my class, says that the Toothfairy isn't real, but I don't believe him. Me and Adeline always get money when we lose a tooth. What happens when you loose a tooth Uncle Herman?"

"_I'm usually flat on a barroom floor, getting the crap punched out of me." _Kozik thought immediately. He of course didn't speak his mind, and instead formulated a more child-friendly answer. "It's been a long time since I've lost a tooth sweetie. But I always got visited by the Toothfairy, when I was your age."

"Really?" Adeline blurted out, like the news that Kozik was once five years old too, was the most shocking revelation of the twenty-first century.

"It's the truth," Kozik could help but to chuckle.

"All right girls, you leave Uncle alone and go play. You have one hour before it is time to do homework," Sarah Kozik cut in, before anything else could be said.

"Come on let go play princess Barbie grocery store! I'm going to be the cashier this time!" Bonnie said to her sister before they both ran down hallway to the immediate left.

Kozik and his sister in-law both smiled as they watched the girls disappear into the play room at the end of the hallway. Once they heard the door close, Kozik stood up and pulled Sarah into a friendly embrace. After they broke apart, Kozik ran his hand through his messy blond locks and asked, "Nathan told you I was going to be here, right?"

"Yes he did. I must admit I am surprised though," Sarah said truthfully.

"Yeah well, it was kind of a last minute type thing."

"Hey," Sarah said as she put a comforting hand on his forearm, noting his apparent discomfort, "don't worry about it at all. We are happy to have you here."

"Thanks," Kozik smiled.

"Why don't you have a shower. It'll be a bit yet before Nathan gets home from work. Towels are in the closet, in the bathroom down the hall."

Kozik nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed knowing that must stink after his nap and driving all night long.

He couldn't wait until after supper when he and Nathan could slip away, and he could vent to his big brother about how upside down his life in Charming had become.

* * *

Alison stood in her kitchen, as she surveyed her day's work of cleaning up Juice's, living room. She knew that it looked five million times better than the last time Chibs had been over. She had spent all day cleaning up the kitchen, bathroom, and guest room as well.

It was time for her to stop moping around and get her shit together. She started her classes in only a few short days, and she wanted to have her head together beforehand, which meant a clean house.

She remembered Chibs' bachelor comment from the last time he was over, so even if her cleaning job wasn't perfect, it wasn't like she was going to be entertaining the Prince of Whales or some other up tight prick.

Allison was showered, and was actually wearing a pair of jeans, not sweatpants, like she had been for the past week or so.

Her top was a black, flowing, shark tooth hemmed tank top. There was a hint of silver thread weaved in and out of the fabric. Allison wore her hair red hair in messy bun, which complemented her minimal, neutral toned eyeshadow.

All day she had been going over and over again in her mind, about just how much "truth" she was going to tell Chibs. As frightening as the thought of spilling her dirty laundry to a man she had only know for a matter of weeks – she knew that it would be better in the long run to tell Chibs now, rather than the club coming at her once they figured out the truth by themselves.

She could definitely tell that Chibs and Juice were close, so if Juice trusted him – she should as well.

The chiming of the doorbell brought Allison out of her thoughts. She took a deep breath before she walked up to the front door and opened it.

Chibs was leaning against the door frame, with his sunglasses on top of his head, a grin on his face, and a paper covered bottle of some sort of booze in his right hand. He immediately stood up right, and eyed Allison from her feet to her face. Chibs took the liberty of lingering a little bit when taking in her chest.

"Ya look lovely, darling," Chibs couldn't help but to blurt out.

Allison wasn't sure if it was her nerves, or the fact that she hadn't been around a man who was so obviously attracted to her physically in seven years – but she her cheeks growing warm.

"Thanks," Allison said as she stepped aside, and beckoned the Scotsman inside with a wave of her hand."

"Wow," Chibs paused and took in the sight before him, "Ye've been a busy little bee."

"Yeah, I know," Allison chuckled, "I actually cleaned. Believe it or not, I'm not a total slob, Scotty."

Chibs raised an eyebrow at her and smirked, "I never said one wee word."

"Uh huh," Allison replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

Chibs kicked off his boots with his heels, and followed her into the kitchen. If somebody were to ask him, he wouldn't deny that he was more than curious, as well as nervous, about whatever past Allison had invited him over to hear. The only thing he knew for sure was that Kozik's name would be mentioned.

"What's in that brown paper goodie bag of yours?" Allison asked once she reached the kitchen, and turned around to lean on the counter.

"Whiskey. I noticed last time I was here you were quite fond of it." It was now Chibs' turn to bug Allison.

"Whiskey cures all maladies. As a Scottish man, I'd thought you'd know that?"

"Aye," Chibs laughed, "This ain't that Tennessee syrup yer' fond of though. I'm more of an Irish man myself."

"Why the fuss?"

"Because," Chibs' smile slowly disappeared as he continued speaking, "by the tone of your had the other night, I figured that you would need some strong spirits tonight."

Allison looked down at her feet and nodded in silent agreement. She then turned around, opened up the cupboard door in front of her, and picked out two short, glass tumblers.

"Straight or on the rocks?" Chibs asked as he walked to stand beside her.

"Straight, is fine by me."

Chibs nodded and poured them each a fair sized glass. He handed one to Allison as she turned to face him.

They both took a rather large sip of their drinks, each as apprehensive as another about the conversation that was about to take place.

Allison picked up her glass, then sat down at the kitchen table. Chibs followed her lead and sat down on the chair to her right.

Allison took a few moments, and silently but intently studied Chibs' face. All day she had mulled over again and again, whether she should trust him with the truth.

She had gathered that he cared about Juice a lot, because of how he went out of his way to help her and get her the keys to Juice's house. He had had to of stepped on the Queen of SAMCRO toes to do it; another sign that Chibs wanted to help Allison.

Even though she knew that what she was about to tell him was mostly likely going to open up a can of worms, which would most likely have SAMTAC come and pay SAMCRO a visit – she knew she had no choice.

She needed a member of SAMCRO on the outside to know the truth, to relay to the club members on the inside that what Juice's story of their connection was the truth.

Chibs could see the fear in Allison's eyes, as she looked at him. He instinctively put his hand over top of her hand that resting on the table.

"It's alright love, just tell me what you need to."

Allison closed her eyes, and let out a heavy sigh. She had to do this – for her safety and for Juice's. She opened her eyes, and began to tell her tale.

The warmth of Chibs' calloused hand, gave her a feeling of comfort let her secrets slip out of her lips.

"As you know, I knew Juice from many years ago. My ties to the Sons of Anarchy MC are far more complicated than just Juice. My ex-husband was a man by the name of Paul Maganoli. He was a patched member of the Tacoma charter of the Son of Anarchy MC, for fourteen years.

I gave birth to our daughter Briella three months after we got married.

For years, I had my suspicions that Paul was stealing from SAMTAC, and doing business on the side with that money for his family and their affiliates back in Chicago, and New York. I did not interfere and kept my distance from the club expect when necessary, for the safety of my daughter."

Chibs pulled his hand away from Allison's in shock. He looked at her, his slightly dropped jaw and raised eyebrows mirrored the disbelief in his mind. He was about to ask about what she meant by the safety of her daughter, but she beat him to the chase with the answer.

"Paul's Uncle, is one of the heads of the families of the Italian-American mafia. Paul always threatened that if he wanted to, he could take my daughter away from me, as punishment for being a rat wife – he could have done it with one phone call. He liked to use his fists to let me know whenever I started question the game of limbo he was playing between the MC and his family. "

Chibs began to tremble with rage. He knew how crippling the fear can be, of the prospect, of having somebody stealing your family.

Jimmy O'Phelan was the bastard who taught him that lesson.

He bit his tongue though, knowing that if he lost his cool about her bastard ex laying his hands on her – it'll cause Allison to stop talking.

"In 2000, Manny Kozik transferred up to SAMTAC. He bought the house next door to mine. As the years went on, we became good friends and eventually lovers. In 2004, Manny and I put things in motion for me to divorce Paul, and start a fresh life with my daughter.

Manny was finishing up his last bit of club business in Tacoma, before announcing that he was turning in his patch, when the club found out about Paul's side business. Let's just say that shit went sideways in more ways than one.

Two other members of SAMTAC were working with Paul. Before they met the Mayhem, they outed Paul, whom at this point had gone M.I.A for a day and a half. It turned out that he went underground and with the help of his cousin Johnny, and Jimmy Cacuzza – found out where my daughter and I were hiding.

He found the house, broke in drunk and high on speed, then began to savagely beat on my daughter. I grabbed the hot frying pan I was using to cook supper on, and beat Paul until his face was unrecognizable.

In county jail a few days after my arrest, Lee, the SAMTAC President assured me that if I went away quietly, the club would look past how I let Paul, steal from the club for years without saying anything. I told him that I wasn't going to hurt the club, but I wasn't going to go down without a fight either. Lee assured me that I would rot inside for my betrayal.

I didn't know what that meant until it was time for Manny, to testify at my trial. He skipped it however, which meant that the only hope of having a decent chance of winning my freedom was down the drain.

Several appeals later, here I am – free, with only a count of imperfect self defense. Juice helped me win my freedom by providing a good character witness."

Chibs let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding in. The cold and calculated way Allison, spoke of such traumatic events told him that she had pushed aside her emotions along time ago. The woman was no stranger to pain and betrayal.

"That explains the other day at TM with Kozik then…" Chibs muttered as the gears in his brain turned. "Now that yer out, I'm afraid that SAMTAC may not be too happy with that."

"I'm not here to cause any trouble Filip. St. Thomas is my only chance, of hanging on to the last shred of my life I had before I went inside. Beside giving birth to my daughter, moving out to California from Queens, to pursue my dream of becoming nurse is the only thing I've done that I am proud of.

Take my story to the table if you want. I'm sure that this will rock the boat a bit but that is okay. I don't give a shit what anybody with a reaper on their back thinks or wants. I did what I had to do back then to keep my family safe…" Allison closed her eyes and visible shuddered.

She knew that her last statement was a total lie. Briella was permanently physically disabled from the attack. It was no doubt that she was probably mentally scarred too, by having seeing her mother beat her father to death like a savage.

"I payed my dues by giving up my daughter, and my credibility as nurse anywhere outside of St. Thomas. I'm nobody's old lady, so I don't answer to the club. Juice is the closest thing I got to family."

Allison really couldn't tell what the Scotsman was thinking as he looked her up and down. She knew that she had just taken a gamble by telling him her story – well the _Clipnotes_ version that is.

"What information did Juicy boy exactly give the court to help you with appeal?"

"None of the information had anything to do with the Sons of Anarchy. Juice knew shit about everything, except that Paul and I had marriage troubles. To this day, he doesn't even know that the man I was going to run away with was Manny… let alone the fact that he was a member of the MC."

"Aye," Chibs sighed as he leaned back in his chair. He ran his fingers through his beard as he thought of how he was going to bring this all to SAMCRO's table tomorrow morning.

"Juice said he was going to explain who I was and how he helped with my appeal to your President, Clay, last time I saw him at Stockton. Judging by your expression he hasn't had the chance yet." Allison said the obvious.

If Clay had become aware of her presence in Charming, shit surely would have hit the fan before the present moment.

Chibs responded with a simple nod.

Life had been simple in Charming as of late. True to the nature of life in a an MC, the blissful simple period had just ended.

He had so many questions for Kozik, once he go back to Charming. Hopefully he could control the rage he currently felt inside, and wouldn't beat the blonde to pile of mulch the next time he saw him.

"If you no longer want to talk to me I understand. I found the key to Juice's gun safe, so if you your piece back you can." Allison said before she downed her whiskey .

Chibs looked at her, and saw the fear in her eyes that she was trying to hard to not to show. He softened his composure and gave her a small smile.

As he wrapped his hands around hers, he firmly swore, "I promised I'll make sure the shit that bastard of an ex-husband and Kozik did ta ya' in the past won't come crashing down. I told Juice, my brother, that I'd look out for you. You wanted a friend, so here I am – I'm not going anywhere, Allison."

* * *

"Holy shit dude," Nathan Kozik sighed as he leaned back in the patio chair he was sitting in, upon hearing that Allison, was out of prison.

It was sunset and the two brothers were sitting outside of the deck on Nathan's house.

"I know, I still feel like I've been living in one long nightmare lately…" Manny revealed before he took a swig of his beer.

"Have you talked to her yet?" Nathan asked.

Manny sighed and pointed to the fading cut on his forehead, "We accidently ran into each other. She flipped out bro, and smashed a bottle over my head."

"Shit, Manny…"

Nathan was at a loss of words. He remembered Manny saying that one day there could be a possibility of Allison being freed.

He knew that his brother barely survived when she went inside. Now that she was out, and he had made the effort to come all the way down state to see him – he had to address the elephant in the room.

"Have you used at all since she's been out?" Nathan asked, referring to Manny's drug riddle past.

"No," Manny shook his head. He looked down at his feet, unable to look his brother in the eye as he revealed, "but it's been so damn close. It's been on my mind every damn day." He paused and looked back up to his brother beside him, deliberately making direct eye contact with him. "I'm here because if I stayed in Charming, any longer – I'd be passed out with a needle up my arm by now. I would never bring drugs around Sarah and the girls, you know that."

Nathan nodded and put a hand firmly on his brother's shoulder.

"Your welcome here as long as you want to be here."

Manny nodded, relieved that his brother believed his was sober.

"I love you man," Nathan said and he stood up and gave his younger brother a firm hug.

"Love you too big bro."

* * *

**A/N: **

**I was so excited to see that many people were still interested in my little tale.**

**Apologies for the delay in the update – midterms got the better of my writing time.**

**Next chapter, Juice finally get to tell Clay about Allison and Chibs brings Allison's story to SAMCRO's table. There's gonna be more brotherly bonding with the Kozik's so stay tuned! **

**Thank so much for reading. And I want to say thank to everybody who has followed/favorited/reviewed since my last note. **

**Have a great Valentines day **


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